Unbroken
by MewWinx96
Summary: The Tessaract has been stolen, causing S.H.I.E.L.D. to sink to their last resort – The Avengers. However, getting them to work together as a team may prove to be difficult, especially when you add in the factors of Norse Gods, scientists with anger issues, mind-altering scepters, and a certain Captain and a Man of Iron who can't really define their relationship. (Heed Disclaimer)
1. Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep

**Previous Work: _My Head's Above the Rain and Roses_ id: 12922982**

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 **Everyone ready for this? 'Cause I'm not. I mean, this fic is completed, but I still have the constant worry I'm going to catch up with myself... Anyways, let's get this show on the road!**

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 **Disclaimer (and this is the only one you're getting): I do not own _the Avengers_ , _Iron Man_ , _Captain America_ , _Thor_ , _t_ _he Incredible Hulk_ , or any other related recognizable characters and/or properties contained within. All rights go to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and any other interested third party (I don't think I could name them all.) This work contains lines from _Thor_ (2011) and _the Avengers_ (2012). All credit for those lines go to Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne, J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich, and Zak Penn and Joss Whedon (here on out referred to as Thanos) respectively. Further credit must go to 20th Century Fox and John Hughes for creating the fictional "Angels With Filthy Souls" film series for the real-life film series _Home Alone_. If any of those people happen to be reading this, I would appreciate a full-length "Angels With Filthy Souls" film for Christmas, please and thank you.**

 **The title of this fic comes from the Black Veil Brides song "Unbroken". All credit goes to Andy Biersack, Jake Pitts, Jeremy Ferguson, Blair Daly, and Sean Beaven.**

 **Cover image edited by MewWinx96 in Adobe Photoshop CC. All of the likenesses belong to each of the credited actors/actresses respectively.**

 **This fic is rated T and for the most part doesn't show anything worse than what was in _the Avengers_ (2012), although some things are implied (such as physical torture) or outright shown (psychological torture), and an instance of strong language (I'm pretty sure someone drops an f-bomb at some point), be advised if these things disturb you. The biggest warning I must put here is that this fic, while rated T, does depict relationships that do not comply with cannon and that some people have an ideological, moral, or otherwise bigotted opinion about. If you do not like the Steve/Tony pairing or are turned off by the other disclaimers, please do not read this fic. Death threats will be taken seriously.**

 **UPDATE 2/16/20: I do not consent to my works being hosted on any unofficial app, particularly ones with ad revenue and subscription services. You should only be able to read this on FFN and AO3. Nowhere else. If you see my stories being hosted on a third-party application, report it to iTunes or the Google Play Store immediately.**

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 **Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 (Midgard Time)**

This wasn't where he wanted to be. Just hours ago he was the sitting Regent of Asgard with his "brother" banished and his "father" deep in the Odinsleep. There was no one that could stand in his way. Sif and the Warriors Three? Mere child's play. Sure, they were the fiercest warriors in the realm, but they fought mostly relying on their brute strength. Loki had watched them for years. He knew all their weak points and was certain with his agility and mastery of magic he'd be able to beat them easily. Once he "saved" his "father" from being killed by Laufey, Loki would erase Jotunheim from the entirety of the Nine Realms and rule Asgard as he should forevermore.

Thor wasn't supposed to come back. He sent the Destroyer to ensure that wouldn't happen. Somehow, though, Thor had proven himself worthy of wielding Mjolnir and had his powers restored. The Bifrost had been destroyed, and now he and Thor were dangling off the bridge, the only thing keeping them from falling into the black abyss of space being Odin's grip on Thor's leg. Loki had failed.

He had to resist the urge to laugh. Of course, it would end like this, so pathetic. His one and the only mistake had been that he had underestimated his "brother's" capacity to "change". In fact, Loki couldn't believe that Thor had really changed. It had to be some sort of trick. There must have been some sort of loophole in the enchantment "father" had placed on the hammer, or maybe that mortal woman his "brother" was so taken with had something to do with it. In the end, it didn't matter. He had lost his rightful place on the throne. His "father" was once again King, Thor was once again Crown Prince, and Loki was once again nothing; just a monster that haunts the dreams of children late into the dark night, completely and utterly pathetic.

He looked around at the vastness of space that surrounded him. He had no options here. He was a traitor to the throne of Asgard, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If he allowed Odin to pull them back up, he'd be stripped of his title and locked away in the dungeons forever. He'd never have his "father's" love, never be Thor's equal. All he'd be is a monster in a cage, cursed to live under the scorn of the people he once ruled. He looked back up at Thor, who was struggling to keep a tight grip on the staff. That's when Loki made his decision. He just had one more thing he needed to say first.

"I could have done it, Father," he called up to Odin. "I could have done it, for you; for all of us!" Loki hadn't been expecting any sympathy, and he sure as hell didn't get it.

"No, Loki," was Odin's only response. So, without any fear, sorrow, or hesitation, Loki let go of the staff, all the while with Thor begging him to stop. He couldn't be stopped, though. He fell slowly into the dark void of space, keeping his eyes on pretend sibling and parent until he felt himself being pulled into the twisted vortex created by the destruction of the Bifrost.

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Being over a thousand years old and having traveled to all the Nine Realms and the worlds contained beyond, Loki knew a thing or two about space. Specifically, he knew that when one floated off into the vast abyss of space without the proper enchantments, biology, or protective gear they'd bloat to twice their normal size and either be cooked alive by the nearest star,or instantly freeze to death if there were no stars generating heat nearby. For the most part, Loki felt normal. Just weakly twitching his fingers, he could feel that they were still their normal size, so he could assume the same about the rest of his limbs. He also clearly hadn't frozen. In fact, he honestly wondered if his newly-discovered Jotun heritage made it impossible to freeze to death. He then realized he probably didn't want to know the answer to that and directed his mind towards a more productive activity; taking stock of his situation and figuring out where the hell he was.

This hadn't been what he had intended to do. He didn't even think escape was possible. He thought he would die getting sucked into the endless void of space. In fact, he'd been counting on it. This, however, was much better. At least he was still alive.

Digging his fingers into the ground underneath him, Loki could feel that he was lying on a dry, almost sandy surface. He tried to lift his arm to get a gauge of the gravity of whatever he was on, but when he tried, he felt pain shoot up his arm and radiating up and down his spinal column. Whatever this place was, it had a strong force of gravity. The only way he could have sustained such painful injuries would be if he fell from a great height and impacted hard enough with the ground to break several bones, but not kill him. All useful clues in narrowing down his location.

Slowly but surely, Loki started to peel open his eyes. He was greeted with the sight of stars, but not the stars he was familiar with. It looked as though he was in an entirely different corner of the galaxy than where Asgard's little pocket universe existed. He tried to spot the constellations his mother and "father" had taught him and Thor to look for as children in case they had ever became lost in the forests surrounding Asgard. He couldn't find one of them. He scanned the sky for something, anything familiar, but found nothing.

Turning his head to the left, he looked over towards the horizon. Short line of distance. Given this and the dirt that covered the rocky landscape, Loki concluded he was on an asteroid, which in his mind, didn't make sense. Asteroids didn't have breathable air or a strong center of gravity. That was the first sign to Loki that something wasn't right here.

Loki fought against the pain and lifted his right arm to his abdomen. Struggling for a second to find his voice, he whispered the familiar words of a healing spell. He knew in his weakened state, trying to use magic to heal himself would counterintuitive given that it would drain all his energy, causing him to pass out again, but at the same time, if he didn't heal himself he'd just be a sitting duck. The pain running down his spine started to fade, as did his perception of reality.

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Hours later, Loki awoke again. This time, however, he knew he was anything but alone. He heard footsteps in the distance. They were soft,as if whoever or whatever was approaching him either didn't weigh anything or had adapted to the surface of the asteroid and learned to move across it with flawless ease. Loki didn't dare move and kept his eyes shut, hoping that if he pretended to be dead, whoever it was would leave him be and move on. He wasn't so fortunate.

The footsteps approached him, but Loki didn't move. He tried to breathe as shallowly as possible and he kept his eyes closed. Something, some little subtlety he overlooked must have given him away. He should have used magic. Even if it would have caused him to use up his energy and pass out again, making him completely vulnerable to this stranger, at least they would have thought he was dead. No, instead they saw right through his act, grabbed him by the hair, and started pulling him across the coarse surface of the ground.

As he was dragged, Loki saw there was no point in keeping up the façade and tried to fight back as best as he could. Although whatever had been wrong with his spine had now been fixed, he was still in an immense amount of pain from the other 128 broken bones throughout his body. Nonetheless, he still tried to hit, kick, twist, and do anything he could to get this person to let him go. He shouted that he was the (now former, but he didn't mention that) Regent of Asgard and demanded that they release him immediately and even tried to stab his captor with one of his concealed daggers. They immediately grabbed his hand and arm, twisting his wrist until he let go of the dagger with a loud and agonized scream. Once it hit the ground, the stranger quickly scooped it up and held the blade to his throat.

"That was only a taste of what lies in wait for you should you try resisting again," the masculine-sounding creature said. "Submit or you shall know true pain." Loki tried to put whatever he could into his expression to show that he understood. The creature then continued to drag him to wherever it was he was being taken.

Eventually, they came to a set of steps which floated in mid-air and led up to another rock, upon which Loki could see that a throne had been erected and a rather large one at that. Slowly, the creature dragged him by the hair up the steps. He made sure to jerk him as hard as possible and Loki fought as hard as he could not to cry out or flinch. Eventually, Loki was deposited on the ground in front of the throne. Loki knew he couldn't stand, so he mustered up all his strength to turn and look towards the throne. There, he saw the dark-robed creature kneeling in front of the throne, which appeared to be capable of turning in any direction as it was currently facing the galaxy beyond them.

"My master," the creature said. "I have brought you a gift."

"Oh?" A deep, bone-chilling voice said. "What is this gift?"

"A tool," the creature said. "A key to another world, a world rife for destruction."

"I like the sound of that." Loki froze as the throne began to turn around. He instantly recognized the figure sitting in it. Real fear crept through his veins. Of all the people in the universe to run into, this certainly one of the ones you didn't want to.

His name was Thanos, commonly regarded as the "Mad Titan". Not much was known about him, other than his reputation for going from world to world, eliminating half it's population and leaving the survivors behind reeling in his wake. Just the simple mention of his name in some parts of the galaxy would strike fear in the hearts of millions. Loki was one of those millions. His heart slammed in his chest as Thanos got up, descended his throne, and walked over to Loki to regard him.

"He doesn't look like much," the Titan observed. Loki bit his tounge.

"He calls himself Loki," the creature said. "A son of Odin and the Sitting Regent of Asgard."

"Asgard?" Thanos questioned. "Ah, yes. I remember, we tried to invade ages ago, but whatever forcefield they had put up kept us back." That was the first time Loki had heard about that. It didn't surprise him, though. It was becoming clear to him that Odin was the true God of Lies, not him. The only good thing about that revelation was that thankfully, Heimdall had most likely managed to stop that from happening without even alarming their people. "What do you expect me to do with **him** though?"

"I believe he can prove invaluable to us," the creature said. "He can get us through Asgard's forcefield." Thanos gave a horrifying facial expression that most would describe as a grin, but Loki would say was more akin to a non-verbal death sentence.

"I like how you think," Thanos said. "If he truly is King of Asgard, his people are probably looking for him. I'm sure they'd open the gates right up once they saw we were returning their King, safe and sound…"

Loki's heart beat at a frantic rate. Even though he'd been tossed aside by his "father" once again in favor of Thor, he didn't want to see Asgard destroyed or its people eradicated. He wanted to rule them, not wipe them from the universe entirely. So, he thought fast, trying to come up with anything he could say to prevent the Titan from attacking the realm he had once called home.

"You can't do that," Loki's weak, hoarse voice protested. Thanos raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" he said. "Why not? What could you possibly do to stop me?"

"The question is not what I would do," Loki said. "Tis what Asgard will do. They would never let you into their domain."

"And why not?" Thanos asked. "You are their King. Certainly, your people would do anything to have you back on the throne, safe and sound."

"You are mistaken," Loki said. "The people of Asgard would never allow me back into their realm."

"What makes you so certain of this?" Loki swallowed hard. He was going to have to tell the truth, or at least a version of it that suited him.

"I am the rightful ruler of Asgard," Loki said. "Cast aside by both my kingdom and my supposed family."

"I thought as much," Thanos said. "So, you're nothing, then."

"No!" Loki struggled to sit up as it became clear that he was going to have to bargain for his own life. "I can still be of use to you!"

"How?" Thanos said as he crouched down, putting his hand on Loki's neck. "You have no real power here. You think you do, but you don't. Give me one reason why I shouldn't snap your neck right now."

"I know things," Loki said. "Things you would like to know. I can help you achieve unlimited power." Thanos seemingly chuckled at that.

"I'd expect nothing less from a weaver of lies." Thanos' hand tightened around Loki's throat.

"I know where you can find an Infinity Stone!" Things went silent. Thanos removed his hand from Loki's neck and Loki took a deep, relieved breath.

It was no secret that in addition to destroying worlds, Thanos also searched for the Infinity Stones. No one knew his motivation or purpose behind it, but rumor had it he had stolen the Mind Stone from the royal vault of a planet he conquered some time ago. No one had seen it for years and Thanos killed anyone with intentions of taking it back from him on the spot. Regardless, Loki knew that if Thanos was willing to destroy an entire planet just to get one Infinity Stone, he'd probably be willing to do anything to get another. Loki could use that to his advantage. His life depended on it.

"I'm listening," was the only prompting Thanos gave. Loki took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice as steady as possible as he explained.

"The Space Stone," Loki started. "'Twas locked away in a mystical artifact known as the Tesseract and hidden somewhere on Midgard. Er, Terra, as I believe it's called in this part of the galaxy." Loki paused for a second to make sure his choice of syntax was correct. Thanos gave him a look that told him to get on with it. "I overheard… Odin, saying once that it had been removed from where he initially hid it, but he could sense that it was still on Terra. I have great skill in the mystic arts. Dare I say I even match that of Odin. I could locate the stone and retrieve it for you."

"And you would get what in return?" The obvious came to Loki's mind, but he didn't dare say it aloud.

"Complete subjugation of Midgard, Terra," he quickly corrected. "After you have conquered it, of course." Thanos nodded in agreement, which made Loki hesitate for a second before revealing the rest of his terms. "However, Asgard is not to be touched." Thanos gave no reaction to this part of the deal. "That is my only offer. Otherwise, you will never get your hands on the Space Stone." Thanos continued to say nothing. His expression remained unreadable. Loki began to fear the worst.

"Alright," Thanos finally said. "I'll consider it." Loki let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. "But first you're going to have to prove something to me." Loki swallowed hard.

"What would that be?" Thanos smirked. Loki was then grabbed by the neck and once again dragged across the rocky surface of the asteroid. When they reached the edge, Thanos lifted him in the air so that way he was eye-level with him. The smirk turned into a full-blown grin.

"Your worth." Loki was then thrown from the asteroid, just barely lucky enough to hit the ground of the larger asteroid below it. The wind was completely knocked out of him and he struggled for a few seconds to breathe. As far as he could tell, the vertebra that he had just repaired was now once again broken. Pain shot across his body at a mind-numbing pace. Loki fought to keep his head above water as darkness creeped in the edges of his vision.

This was good. Not ideal, but good. Thanos was, at the very least, considering his offer. That kept him alive for a bit longer. It also allowed the edges of a plan to form in Loki's mind. He wasn't entirely sure of all the details yet, but he could easily work with the foundation he had built. Once given complete control of the remains of Midgard, Loki could easily create an army to invade Asgard. Humans were very feeble-minded creatures. As soon as they accepted him as their new ruler, he could easily lead them into battle and regain control of the throne of Asgard. He could see it already. Oh, it was so glorious.

He also could see the person who had captured him before coming up on the faded peripheral of his vision. He reached down and grabbed Loki by the hair again, pulling hard.

"Come now," they said. "It is time for you to learn the true meaning of pain."

At that point, Loki blacked out.

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 **At least I didn't start off with OCs that nobody cares about this time, right? Ehehe... People are either really going to like this or really going to hate this, and I'm not sure which is better. In my mind, Loki's actions prior to his redemption are sort of a gray area... Like some people have noted, Loki at the end of _Thor_ and Loki at the beginning of _the Avengers_ are very different people. It's pretty clear that something happened to him between films and that thing was most definitely Thanos (take your pick of the two.) However, I wouldn't go so far as some fics do to say that he was COMPLETELY mind controlled by Thanos. I still do believe that he knew what he was doing when he took every last life he did in this film, and while there will be some very clear points where Thanos and/or the Other are trying to control Loki's thoughts and it is confusing him a bit, in the end, the decision to end every life that he did was Loki's. I hope that comes across clearly in my writing, otherwise, the death of the author strikes again.**

 **Anyways, if you like this, feel free to favorite, follow, leave kudos, comment, review, PM me, make fan art, compose songs, sell me your kidneys, promise me your first born... You know the drill!**

 **Remember kids, stay far away from Thanos.**

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 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 12/18/18.**


	2. Broaden Your Mind

**Welcome to chaos, do you recognize me?**

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 **Thursday, September 1st, 2011**

Evac had been ordered, but no one had left the room. They couldn't. This was Ground Zero. Whatever was going on with the Tesseract, these people were the last chance at containing the fallout of it. Luckily, all the scientists were aware of the risk they were taking, and no one lost their cool and tried to bolt for the door. That was all well and good to Clint. He wouldn't have to waste any of his tranquilizer arrows.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clint Barton had been assigned to monitor the operations of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. all the way back in April. It wasn't the most exciting assignment in the world. Most of the time he just sat up in his perch and watch the scientists work diligently down below. No one ever did anything suspicious, they just went about their business. It was tedious, but Clint never took his eyes away from the lab down below. If he looked away for even a second, that could be the one second that put the entire operation and everyone in the lab in danger. So, he silently watched day in and day out, secretly looking forward to the day where they wrapped this whole thing up and he could go home.

However, the unexpected had happened and now the entire complex was being thrown into a tizzy. There was an energy flare-up from the Tesseract. It happened at a moment when very few people were in the room and there was no apparent outside influence to cause it. The scientists were instantly enraptured in finding the cause of the spike in energy and had gotten to work ASAP.

Despite the revolutionary discovery, there was some cause for concern. In a few models of the Tesseract's energy projection capabilities, it was shown that it was possible for another energy spike from the cube to not only level the building, but also any other structure in a twenty-mile radius. Thankfully, they were in the middle of one of the most deserted locations on Earth. Civilian casualties were only a minor concern. Still, there was too much risk involved to the lives of the non-necessary personnel, so after contacting the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, Clint's handler, Agent Phil Coulson, ordered an evacuation of all personnel not directly responsible for security or research purposes. It was the safest call. Clint just hoped they would all be able to make it out in time.

Clint watched as Director Fury entered the room and began to discuss the issue of the cube with the lead scientist, Dr. Erik Selvig. He was able to make out most of the conversation through reading lips. The most he knew about the cube was that it was a potential energy source and it was supposedly a gateway to space. Not that he ever witnessed any proof of that himself, other than maybe this energy spike. However, that was all he knew. The rest was classified well beyond his clearance. He'd even be surprised if the scientists even truly knew what they were working on, the only person who truly knew being Director Fury. From the conversation, though, all he learned was what he already knew, which was next to nothing. Eventually, Selvig pointed back at Clint's perch and he made eye-contact with Fury. Knowingly, Clint vacated his position by sliding down a nearby rope and joined Fury out on the lab floor.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," Fury said once Clint joined him.

"Well, I see better from a distance," Clint said.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked. At the same time, one of the scientists announced that the energy levels were starting to spike again. Clint watched as everyone rushed to their respective screens.

"No one's come or gone," he said. "And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs." Clint followed Fury up to the platform that held the machine that was controlling the Tesseract. Just looking at the cube, it wasn't apparent that anything strange was going on. It just sat there, glowing the same light blue color it had been for the past few months. If Clint didn't know better, he'd think that everyone was getting all flustered about nothing. However, he did know better and he had his own suspicions about what was going on. "If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."

"'At this end?'" Fury questioned. Clint was a little surprised that he didn't catch on to the obvious.

"Yeah," he said. "The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides."

Clint probably jinxed them all with that remark. As soon as he finished saying that, a massive energy burst came from the Tesseract, opening some sort of portal and causing a blinding flash of bright blue light to consume the room. When it faded, a figure was standing crouched on another platform that had been set up for testing purposes. A few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents carrying heavy machine guns approached the figure cautiously as it slowly looked up and gave a venomous smile. It was very clearly a man; one without good intentions. The man stood up and took stock of the room. At this point, Fury spoke up.

"Sir, please put down the spear!" The man looked at the object in his hand. The object was golden and had a gem in the center of it that was similar in color to that of the Tesseract. Clint would more likely classify it as a scepter than a spear, but it was still clearly weaponized. The top part clearly had a bladed edge that looked like it would hurt beyond hell if someone got stabbed with it. That ended up not being the part of the weapon that they had to worry about, though. The man pointed the scepter at one of the armed agents and fired a bright blue blast that knocked the agent across the room. Whether or not he was alive, or dead wasn't clear, but nobody had time to question that as the man on the platform began to fire indiscriminately.

Clint immediately forced the Director to the ground as a blast was sent towards them. The whole thing was a snafu, with people screaming and machine gunfire sounding off. At some point, the man had stopped firing and had taken to stabbing the armed agents with the bladed edge of his scepter and throwing knives at them.

Clint and a few other agents tried to fire at the hostile with their sidearms, but another blast got sent their way, forcing him to have to tuck and roll to safety. He could already feel the bruises he was going to have later as he slowly forced himself to stand. As he got to his feet, though, the man accosted him, grabbing his arm and squeezing his wrist painfully. Clint was surprised when the man didn't try to take any other action against him.

"You have heart," the intruder remarked. Clint wasn't sure how to take that, but he didn't have time to as the man touched the tip of the scepter to his chest, just above his heart. Everything went black.

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This hadn't been where he was before. Clint was sure of that. What he wasn't sure of was how he got there or why he was even there in the first place. He remembered something about S.H.I.E.L.D., but that was it. He didn't remember how he had gotten to this field, and it took him a second to even recognize the place. When he did, he was overjoyed. This was the field surrounding his farm, turning around, Clint could spot the farmhouse in the distance and began sprinting at top speed for it.

Everything looked as he remembered it, at first. They had cows grazing in the field and the other animals were in their respective pens, either lazing about or waiting to be fed again. Clint smiled and fixed his gaze on the farmhouse. He just knew Laura and the kids were inside, anxiously waiting for him to come home. Only a dozen or so yards separated him from his family. Clint ran as fast as he could to close that distance and make it home.

Unfortunately, it didn't end like that. Without warning, something massive came screeching across the sky. It zoomed right past Clint and only stopped when it collided with the house. There were an explosion and Clint were thrown back at least fifty feet. He could feel every scrape, bump, and scratch as he hit the ground. It was all oh-so-painful, but it was nothing in comparison to the emotional agony Clint was thrown in.

As soon as he could get to his feet, Clint was bolting for the farmhouse again. He couldn't see anything other than a cloud of smoke rising from the ground. It felt like it took him hours to reach the site where his home once stood, but when he did, he was left reeling. There was nothing left but a few charred boards and a pile of ash. The smoke burned his eyes and lungs, but he didn't even notice. His home, his wife and children were just blown to smithereens in front of him and there wasn't a single thing he could've done to stop it.

 _How,_ his mind demanded to know as he fell to his knees, not even bothering to try to hold back the sobs that were now racking his body. _How could this have happened? How did they find them? How did they even **know** about them? Oh, god!_

Clint sat there for what felt like hours, mourning the loss of his wife and children, and waiting for whoever did it to come to finish the job and take him out, too. It wasn't like he cared. Everything he had to live for was gone. Well, almost everything.

After a while, the smoke began to clear, and Clint caught sight of an adult, humanoid figure combing through the wreckage. At first, his heart leaped. He hoped it was Laura, that she and the kids somehow managed to get out safely. He was a little disappointed when the smoke cleared enough to allow him to discern that it wasn't her, but he was still relieved to see a familiar head of curly red hair.

 _Natasha!_ Clint got up and sprinted to his partner, Natasha Romanoff. She was on her knees, digging through the pile of ash, looking for something. Clint bent down, grabbed her by the shoulder, and turned her to face him. The look of horror on her face was one he had only seen once before, and it terrified him to see it again.

"Nat," he said, though he couldn't hear himself. That made him realize that he couldn't hear anything else around him. Alarm bells were blaring in his mind, but he couldn't muster up the strength to care about his own personal well-being at this point. "Nat! What the hell happened? Who did this? How did they find the house?"

The look of horror didn't leave Natasha's face. She started saying something so frantically that he had trouble reading her lips. He eventually recognized it was his name. Clint tried to ask her what was wrong, but before he could even finish asking Natasha pushed him down to the ground and another explosion went off. Everything was black after that.

That was, until he found himself in the field again, with the farmhouse still intact in the distance. The events replayed again and once everything went to black, it started again. Over and over Clint watched his entire family be killed. With each replay, Clint could feel himself die a little each time. He begged, pleaded to whoever was making this happen to stop, but each time he got no answer. He just watched it all happen again. Eventually, Clint had no choice but to give in to the fear.

When he did this, everything became clear. To end the terror, he needed to accept the power of the Mind Stone into his heart and accept its wielder as his master. Slowly but surely, Clint opened his heart and mind to these ideas and began to embrace them. When he did, he felt all terror leave him. There was only one thing that mattered in his life anymore, and that was to serve and protect the wielder of the Mind Stone, the man standing in front of him with a victorious grin on his face, Loki Laufeyson.

* * *

 **Friday, September 2nd, 2011**

Natasha wasn't afraid. In fact, she honestly just wanted to laugh at these pathetic moron's attempts to threaten her. Really? They were going to pull her teeth out? That was the best they could do? Please, it would take a lot more than that to get her to talk. In fact, she had gotten more information out of this idiot then she had in an entire month of surveillance and undercover work. All she had to do was get herself tied up. Too easy.

She did her best to look afraid as one of the lackeys grabbed her by the jaw and held her mouth open as he tilted her chair back. She was getting ready to make her mistake when she heard a cellphone ring. She heard the other lackey answer it and hand it off to his boss, saying in Russian that it was for her. The lackey pulling back her chair lowered her back onto the ground and Natasha watched with slight amusement as a frightened expression came across her captor's face as he stepped forward and put the phone up to her ear. As Natasha managed to situate the phone between her shoulder and her ear, a familiar voice came over the line.

"We need you to come in," Coulson said.

"Are you kidding?" Natasha replied. "I'm working."

"This takes precedence," Coulson said.

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation," Natasha said. "This moron is giving me everything." It was apparent that the boss understood that remark as his eyes went wide.

"I don't…" He said in befuddled, heavily accented English. "I didn't give her…" Natasha shot him a look before turning her attention back to the conversation with Coulson.

"Look, you can't pull me out of this right now," she said into the phone.

"Natasha…" Coulson's somber tone immediately raised red flags in Natasha's mind. Despite this, she still didn't expect what he said next. "Barton's been compromised."

Immediately a wave of anger and concern came over Natasha. About eighty different questions ran through her mind. What happened? Where's Clint? Is he hurt? Is he safe? Are Laura and the kids safe? Has the farm been compromised as well? However, before she could ask she had one little issue she needed to deal with. Turning her harsh glare on the boss and the lackeys.

"Let me put you on hold." As the boss came to take the phone away from her, she kicked him in the genitals and headbutted him on his way down. The lackeys began to charge at her but she easily deflected their blows and sent them flying to the floor as well. When one of them tried to get up, she slammed one of the legs of her chair on his foot and smashed the back of her head into his nose. She kicked the other lackey's feet out from under him before turning back to the one she was currently fighting and slammed her foot into his thigh.

It went on like this for a while. Before long, Natasha was able to smash the chair apart, allowing her to freely move and easily take out the two lackeys. When the boss tried to get up and take her out himself, she managed to tie a chain around his leg and push him through an open panel in the floor. Once that was taken care of, Natasha collected the phone and her shoes and began to make her way to the building's exit.

"Where's Barton now?" she asked.

"We don't know," Coulson said.

"But he's alive?" Natasha really wished she didn't have to phrase that as a question. Fortunately, Coulson went for the merciful response.

"We think so." That took a little bit of edge off Natasha's worry. "We think so" was at least better than a flat out "no." It meant Clint still had a chance. "I'll brief you on everything when you get back."

"Can you at least tell me the nest is secure?" Natasha knew the line had top-level encryption and she was far away enough from those goons to at least feel comfortable enough to use the code she, Clint, and Coulson had developed for discussing Clint's farm and family. Coulson must not have been in a secure location, though, as he took a minute and went into another room before replying.

"The nest is secure," Coulson said. A little bit more of the edge off Natasha's worry. "Lisa's got the entire place locked down and has the chicks ready to flee to the Annex if necessary. Agent M is on her way to babysit the property and keep watch for Barton or any suspicious persons who might show up there."

"The Calvary?" Natasha questioned. "I thought she quit field work after what happened in Bahrain."

"She doesn't like being called that," Coulson said. "And it's not fieldwork. She's just doing a favor for a friend. At least, that's how she's justifying it to herself."

"Well, let's just hope it doesn't become field work then," Natasha said. "She's an even match to me and Lisa knows her way around a gun, but I don't want either of them to be put in that position."

"Hopefully that won't be necessary," Coulson said. "Our first priority is finding Barton and what he escaped with, but to do that we're going to need you to recruit the big guy."

"Coulson, you know Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me." Which could be a few miles given wind conditions and altitude.

"Nope," Coulson said. "I've got Stark. You get the big guy." Natasha stopped dead in her tracks. She knew exactly who he meant, and she let out a curse in a language she knew Coulson didn't understand. Well, she didn't think it was possible, but her night was just about to get even more exciting. Great.

* * *

 **Thanks to DarkSkity and FanGirlForever19 for the favorites and follows on FFN and FriedChickenNisha for leaving a comment and kudos on AO3, along with one other guest! It really means a lot! :)**

 **For those of you who don't know, "Agent M" and "The Calvary" refer to Agent Melinda May from _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ you don't need to know much about her or _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ to understand this fic as _the Avengers_ takes place before the show. Just know that she's with Laura and the kids to ensure their safety. **

**This is actually also addressing a problem I had with _Age of Ultron_ as Clint's family seemingly came out of nowhere. I mean, they hinted at Clint having a significant other early on in the film, but that was just one line and it didn't really well establish the reveal. Also, I found it a little disconcerting given that Clint was brainwashed in _the Avengers_. Wouldn't the people in the know about Clint's family be concerned for their safety? I guess that was poor planning on Thanos's part. So yes, Laura and the kids exist and are safe! That's all you need to know!**

 **Anyways, if you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review or a comment or kudos or whatever. I cross-post, just do what's appropriate for the site you're on.**

 **Remember kids, all is right when you welcome Loki into your life! Loki be with you!**

* * *

 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 12/21/18**


	3. 21st Century Breakdown

**Finally, some Steve! No Tony yet (well at least not in physical presence) but don't worry, he'll show up soon!**

* * *

 **Friday, September 2nd, 2011**

Surprisingly enough, the first thing that Steve Rogers did when he got up in the morning nowadays was checking to see if he had gotten any text messages from Tony Stark. Tony had given him the cell phone (mostly due to the fact he was worried S.H.I.E.L.D. was monitoring their calls) and had gotten in the habit of texting him in the middle of the night for latterly no discernable reason. Very few of the text messages made any real sense, so Steve had to figure Tony had either gotten drunk and written them or had worked himself beyond exhaustion and written them. Lately, Steve would figure the latter given that Tony's been hard at work finishing the construction of Stark Tower.

Steve wouldn't admit it to Tony, but he kind of thought the tower was a bit over-the-top and gaudy. He knew that was sort of Tony's thing, but it still made him sad to see something that hadn't been apart of his New York Skyline. He felt the same about every other building that had been erected since he went into the ice. It helped to know that another building had been there before Tony had bought the property, had everything torn down, and built it all over again from the ground up, and that he apparently had work started on the property the same day that S.H.I.E.L.D. had fished him out of the ice, so really it wasn't like this was a change that happened overnight for him like everything else. Also, the fact that he had a crush on Tony also might have helped that.

Yes, Steve was finally willing to admit it. He had a crush on Tony Stark. It scared him a little, but not as much as it did before. Over the course of the past thirteen months, Steve had slowly come to accept that being LGBTQ wasn't as stigmatized in society as it had been back in the '40s. Hell, according to Tony it wasn't even as stigmatized as it was when he was growing up. Society had come along way in a very short amount of time. Well, there were still groups like the Westboro Baptist Church that took every chance they could to spread their hateful message, but they were slowly becoming the minority. Gay marriage had even been legalized in New York just a couple of months ago. He still wasn't quite ready to come out himself, but just knowing that things were getting better made him happy. Almost as happy as he felt around Tony.

It didn't matter what they were doing or where they were, Steve felt completely content and at ease when he was around Tony. In fact, it was the only time he ever felt anything resembling happy anymore. Yes, on the outside Tony could be rather arrogant and narcissistic, but once you get past that he was a very nice person. Steve liked asking Tony about his tech. He had a hard time keeping up with what Tony was saying once he got started on that subject but seeing how happy and in-the-zone Tony was always made Steve's heart quiver and caused a smile of his own to come to his face.

He hadn't told Tony about his crush yet. Even though he knew Tony was bisexual as well, but he didn't think he'd return his feelings. He did come close, though. The week before Tony stayed over at his new apartment in Brooklyn since he didn't feel entirely safe staying in his unfinished penthouse during Hurricane Irene (even though he had already completely sealed off the exterior windows which were built to hold up against sustained wind speeds of almost three-hundred miles per hour, as JARVIS had informed them from Tony's phone.) It went well. They had pizza and tried to watch some movie Steve couldn't remember the title or the plot of before the power went out. Tony offered to go outside in his suit to try and fix the powerlines (or, even better, hook Steve's building up with Arc Reactor technology so that way the power would never go out again), but Steve managed to talk him into going to bed early. That's when Steve almost crossed over the point of no return.

They were lying in bed, together, again. (It wasn't like it could be helped this time. Steve only had the one bed after all.) All they were really doing was talking… And kind of cuddling… Not that either of them brought attention to that fact or even admitted that's what happened, but still, it was rather nice. Probably a little too nice as Steve apparently let his mind get carried away. At one point, Tony shifted forward and it brought his face tantalizingly close to Steve's. Steve could have sworn that Tony was going to go in and try to kiss him, but at the last second, Tony pulled back, leaving Steve lying there red-faced and confused. Tony didn't say anything about it afterward or the next day, so Steve just had to assume he was just reading too much into things.

Once the storm passed, Tony left, and Steve hadn't seen him since. He's texted him a few times, but for the most part, he's been trying to stay out of Tony's way. They had to halt construction on Stark Tower for a few days due to the Hurricane, so they were now a little bit behind schedule. He thought it best to just keep his distance for a few days so that way Tony could focus on what he needed to get done and he could maybe get his mind straightened out.

The latter obviously didn't happen, but Steve honestly didn't expect it to. He's spent the past year trying to straighten out his mind and had little to show of it. It didn't help that a certain international spy agency was doing little if anything to help him. They just left him to his own devices from day one. If he hadn't met Tony immediately after he woke up, he'd probably have never even left the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility they were keeping him at. The only person from S.H.I.E.L.D. who honestly seemed like they were at least putting in the honest effort to be nice was surprisingly Natasha, the agent who had been sent to collect him after Tony kept him out a little too long on their totally-not-a-date. After that incident she took him out to dinner a couple of times and breakfast once (because apparently, the accommodations on the average S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet didn't include in-flight meals on overnight flights.) and honestly, he didn't feel like S.H.I.E.L.D. asked her to do that.

The biggest issue that Steve had with S.H.I.E.L.D., though, was that for the longest time they were "closely" monitoring him and would only let him leave the facility when accompanied by an agent. (They probably enforced that rule for fear that he would get "kidnapped" by Tony again.) The stated reason why they did this was that they were afraid of it getting out to the public that Captain America had miraculously brought back from the dead. Once it did, Steve wouldn't have very much privacy, or at least that's what they kept stressing to him. Steve had a very good feeling that it was more because S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't want attention being put on them or have too many questions asked about how this had transpired.

Eventually, though, they relented and a few months ago they finally came out with a press release stating that Steve Rogers was alive and well, having spent sixty-five years frozen in the Arctic Circle. You know what happened after that? Absolutely nothing. Well, Steve did have to answer a few questions for a few reporters initially, but after that, the public didn't seem to have much interest. Probably because most of the public was too young to have even lived through the Second World War. They hadn't heard of Captain America outside of their history books and their Grandpa's (full of bull) war stories. The way S.H.I.E.L.D. had made it sound, he would get mobbed just as bad as Tony does whenever he even so much as thinks about entering a public space, but no. That's not what happened. Steve could go out in public and not get accosted by anyone. Yeah, S.H.I.E.L.D. was clearly only interested in keeping everyone's eyes away from them. Well, they probably should have thought about that before they thawed him out of the ice.

So, even though he'd been out of the ice for a little over a year now, Tony was really the only person he had made any sort of connection with. He was the only person Steve ever talked to on a regular basis. After all, everyone he knew was dead except for Peggy, who was in a hospice in London and he didn't really have much incentive to go outside and meet people, so the only person he had to talk to was Tony. Not that he minded – he did have a crush on the guy after all – but he couldn't help but feel… isolated. It was a cold and somewhat bitter feeling. He didn't like it, and the only thing he currently had to soothe that was the occasional text from Tony. Luckily, he wasn't disappointed as he pressed the center button on his phone and saw that he had a new text message from Tony. Unsurprisingly it was timestamped for one in the morning, but it had proper spelling and grammar, so at least that let Steve know he hadn't been drunk.

(1:33a) Tony Stark:

Are you free tonight?

It was only four words, but it made Steve's heart leap with a bit of nervous excitement. Despite that, he still for some reason felt the need to respond with…

(7:33a) Me:

Is this a trick question?

He instantly smashed his head against the phone after pushing the send button and scrambled to add a secondary text to his reply.

(7:34a) Me:

Yes, I'm free.

He waited a minute or two to see if Tony would reply. He was doubtful he would and rightfully so as Tony had been texting him at one AM. He was probably either fast asleep or still so absorbed in whatever project that he was working on that he hadn't been to sleep yet. Steve hoped it was the former.

So, after a few minutes of waiting, Steve got up and started to get ready for his day. A little spark of happiness flickered in his heart as he headed towards the bathroom. At least he had something to look forward to today.

* * *

Steve sat at a table at a café in Midtown. It was just down the street from where Stark Tower was being built. He still hadn't heard back from Tony, he was just trying to kill some time. It turned out, that wasn't the best idea in the world. The whole way there he just felt nothing but depressed. Part of it being how much everything had changed, the other part is how lonely he felt. He kept checking his phone to see if Tony had texted him back. No such luck. So, Steve tried busying himself with something that he loved (or at least used to.) Given that he had a great view of the tower from where he was sitting he started to sketch it on the back of the paper placemat the café had provided him. It didn't distract him as much as he'd like, but it was something.

He was having a hard time focusing and getting in the artistic mindset, but once he did, Steve found it easy to lose himself in what he was doing. He was so absorbed that he didn't even notice the waitress coming up to his table.

"Waiting on the big guy?" Steve looked up and gave her a quizzical look.

"Ma'am?"

"Iron Man," she quickly clarified with a smile. "A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by." She gestured over to Stark Tower and Steve quickly glanced around. He did indeed spot quite a few people looking in the tower's general direction intently, almost as if they were afraid if they blinked, they might miss something. It did warm Steve's heart a bit, but at the same time, it couldn't do much to help how down he was feeling.

"Right." Steve took out his wallet an threw a few bills on the table. "Maybe another time."

"The table's yours as long as you like," the waitress said. "Nobody's waiting on it." At this point, Steve decided to take a glance at her nametag. Beth. She seemed nice enough. Steve noted that and put in a few more dollars for a tip. "Plus, we've got free wireless." She added as she started to walk away. Steve's brow furrowed with confusion.

"Radio?" The woman turned back for a second, looking a little confused herself, but continued to smile at him until her attention was taken away by another table. Steve sighed. Despite Bucky and Peggy's insistence to the contrary, he could tell when someone was flirting with him. He got a few lessons in that with how many women threw themselves at him when he was on tour with the USO. That didn't mean he knew how to respond to it (if the whole Private Lorraine incident is any proof), but he could at least tell when it happened, and Beth had been flirting with him. She had already walked away, so there wasn't much that could be said. All it pretty much did was make him feel five different types of awkward. It only got worse when the elderly man at the table next to him turned around to offer his two cents.

"Ask for her number, you moron." Steve didn't know how to respond to that, but luckily an answer came to him in the form of the chiming of his cell phone. He quickly opened the device to his inbox to see that he had a new text from Tony.

(11:32a) Tony Stark:

Awesome! Pepper, Conroy, and I are putting the finishing touches on the tower! You should come by around 8-8:30.

"No thanks," Steve said to the old man without really paying attention to anything other than the text on his screen. "I think I've already got someone." As he got up, Steve could have sworn he heard a scoff of "kids these days," but ignored it. He started to walk away from the café while typing a text to Tony at the same time.

(11:33a) Me:

Okay. See you then.

Before he could slide the device back into his jacket pocket, his phone chimed with another incoming text from Tony. This one was just a simple ":D." Steve had no idea what it stood for and just assumed that Tony had somehow made a mistake while texting. He slid the phone back into his pocket and began wandering around New York, trying to find something he could do until eight o'clock rolled around.

* * *

Steve found himself at a gym somewhere between Midtown and Brooklyn. Whenever he got too overwhelmed with memories of his life before being trapped in the ice or his seemingly complete inability to integrate into modern life, he found himself wanting to punch something. Luckily, there was an open, yet completely empty gym that he found on his way back to his apartment. With nothing else to do and a lot of pent-up feelings of anxiety and anger he wanted to get rid of, Steve went in and paid the required amount to spend a couple of hours slamming his fists into a series of several punching bags. (All of which Steve had to pay to replace.) That's what he had been doing when Nick Fury found him.

He had just TKO'ed another punching bag and was in the process of hanging up another one when Fury made his presence known.

"Trouble sleeping?" Steve found that question odd given that it was almost three in the afternoon but nonetheless tossed back a witty retort.

"I slept for seventy years, sir," he said as he started striking the new punching bag. "I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out," Fury remarked as he stepped closer. "Celebrating, seeing the world." Steve resisted the urge to scoff at that, instead choosing to step away and unwrap the athletic tape from around his hands.

"When I went under," he said as he walked. "The world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." Steve kept his gaze on his hands. Otherwise, he would have shot Fury a nasty glare. In that second, he was grateful Tony was kind enough to lay the truth on him right away. Otherwise, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably would have sheltered him from that, too.

"We've made some mistakes along the way." Mistakes were an understatement on both potential fronts as to what Fury was talking about, but Steve managed to keep that thought to himself. "Some, very recently." That caught Steve's attention and he glanced up for a second from unwrapping his other hand to see that Fury had a file in his hand.

"Are you here with a mission, sir?" A pointless question, but one Fury answered nonetheless.

"I am," he said.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" That would be rich.

"Trying to save it." Fury opened the file and handed it over to Steve. Once he got a look at what was inside the file, Steve paused for a second in shock before taking the file in both hands. On the top-right corner of the page was a photograph of the object that started it all; the reason Steve ended up on that plane and why he was forced to crash it into the ocean; the Tesseract. Steve hoped it had been lost forever and gone for good once it melted through the floor of the plane after killing the Red Skull, but it turned out he was not that fortunate. The image was in color and timestamped for May of the previous year. S.H.I.E.L.D. had the Tesseract and hadn't immediately destroyed it. Steve didn't like where this was going.

"Hydra's secret weapon," he said out of sheer surprise.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you," Fury said. That didn't surprise Steve. Of course, he would save the dangerous Nazi weapon. He probably wanted to know how in the hell they made those guns and was probably trying to figure out a way to reverse-engineer it. Steve wished for a second that Howard was still alive just, so he could smack him on the back of the head for doing something so dangerous and stupid. The most he could hope for though was that Peggy had already done it for him at some point in the past.

Steve listened intently as Fury explained that Howard had thought that the Tesseract was the key to unlimited sustainable energy and that S.H.I.E.L.D. was attempting to continue his research when they hit a small snag. Well, not as small as they would like. Steve was able to conclude before Fury finished explaining.

"Who took it from you?"

"He's called Loki," Fury said. "He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve stood up and started to collect his things.

"Ten bucks says your wrong." Steve said nothing as he walked across the room and picked up one of the punching bags, intending to take it with him back to his apartment. If he couldn't get any peace here, he might as well go back home. "There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean."

* * *

When Steve got back to his apartment, he set the punching bag down on the living room floor and caught sight of the packet sitting on his dining table. He'd question how in they got in, but he knew that'd be pointless. Instead, he sat down in the seat in front of the packet and began to stare at it. He already knew what he was going to do; what he had to do. After all, as Fury said, the world needed to be saved, he just wished saving it didn't come at the expense of his "date" (as he desperately wished it was) and Tony's feelings. Slowly, he pulled out his phone and hit all the buttons required to compose a new text message.

(3:04p) Me:

Something's come up. Sorry, but I can't make it.

* * *

 **Thanks to Sweet_As_Suga for leaving kudos and FriedChickenNisha for leaving a comment on AO3! It really means a lot!**

 **Ehehe... I should say now that I'm worried that some of Steve's story arc in this is going back on some of what I did in MHATRAR but I'm not quite sure... What do you think? Tell me in a comment or review! Also, follow and favorite as well! :)**

 **Remember kids, Tony definitely wasn't lying and just wanted to cuddle with Steve during a thunderstorm. Nope, that is not what happened! ;)**

* * *

 **Originally posted on FFN on 12/22/18**


	4. Stood Up and Shut Up

**Why is it that every time I listen to _Pray for the Wicked_ all I can think is "Wow, this song totally fits Tony!"**

* * *

 **Friday, September 2nd, 2011**

It didn't take long for Tony to locate the last underwater power supply line running through the East River. It was old, rusted, grimy, and easy to cut through with just a low-powered energy beam from one of his repulsors. He had the metal housing open in seconds and was able to secure the power inhibitor with ease. Once he saw that it had powered on and was functioning properly, he took off, resurfacing and turning his attention straight to his newly-built tower. The place was as black as midnight, but thankfully all the buildings around it were still lit up. That was a relief. One of the concerns he had was that he'd accidentally cause a city-wide blackout trying to take Stark Tower off the grid. Good thing that didn't come to pass, otherwise he'd have a lot of explaining to do to the City of New York (again.)

While Tony headed for the tower, he sent a video call in to Pepper. She answered right away and was at the ready at the controls to the building's power systems.

"Good to go on this end," Tony notified her. "The rest is up to you."

"You disconnected the transmission lines?" Pepper asked, just to make sure everything was good to go. "Are we off the grid?"

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy," Tony confirmed.

"Well," Pepper said. "Assuming the arc reactor takes over and it actually works."

"I assume," Tony said. "Light her up!" Pepper nodded and hit a few buttons on the console in front of her. Just then the tower's floors began to light up a handful at a time. Tony couldn't help the sense of pride swelling up when the bright blue letters spelling out "STARK" finally came to life.

"How does it look?" Pepper asked.

"Like Christmas," Tony said. "But with more me."

"We gotta go wide on the public awareness campaign," Pepper said. "You need to do some press." Tony hated hearing those words, but it couldn't be helped. Facing the press was a necessary evil when it came to change the world, unfortunately.

"I'll get Conroy on it," Tony assured. Excitement began to build as he began to fly parallel to the side of the tower, taking in the bright flash of the lights on every floor as they zoomed by. Oh yes, this was just as good as Christmas, and Tony hoped it would only get better once he got back inside. It was edging closer to eight o'clock, after all.

"Well, I'm going to be heading to DC tomorrow," Pepper said. "I'm working on the zoning for the next two buildings."

"Pepper," Tony said. "You're killing me. The moment, remember? Enjoy the moment."

"I am and I will," Pepper said. "Come inside, we have celebratory champagne."

"Is Steve there yet?" Tony asked.

"No, not yet." Tony's face fell a tiny bit as he touched down on the landing pad that led back into the tower's penthouse. "It's only 7:54. I'm sure he'll turn up soon."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said. "See you in a minute." The video feed back to Pepper cut out and the mechanisms to take apart the Iron Man suit came to life around Tony. Slowly, he stepped off the platform and the machinery began to take apart his armor bit by bit.

Obviously, Tony was more than a bit antsy to see Steve. How could he not be? The guy was the only thing he had on his mind for the past week, other than completing construction on the tower. It was a little scary to Tony to admit that, but at the same time it was thrilling.

After their first meeting and disastrous first date (which was ultimately his own fault for pushing everything else in his life to the side to chase after a hot guy fifty years his senior) Tony and Steve had kept in contact via phone calls and later text messaging once Steve had learned to use a cell phone. (A 2007 Blackberry, but an actual working cell phone nonetheless.) Tony would admit he felt attracted to Steve the moment he saw him, but once he started talking to him, Tony found that he liked him. He **really** liked him. He liked him so much that when he stayed over at Steve's during the Hurricane the previous week, he almost kissed him.

Keyword, **almost**. At the last second, he chickened out and backed away. He didn't know why. Usually when he kissed a guy or girl, he went for it without a second thought. This time, though, he hesitated, and he wished he hadn't. It gave him a second to think about what he was about to do and that one second was enough to make him change his mind. He had no idea how Steve would react or even if he felt the same way. Besides, he was still trying to come to terms with the fact that it was okay to be gay now. Kissing him would only upset him and Tony didn't want to do that. So, he backed away, rolled to the other side of the bed, and pulled the covers over his face to hide his shame. He didn't talk to Steve about it the next morning and put off calling or texting him for most of the week. That was, until last night.

Tony had been up most of the night, preparing to take the tower off the grid. While he was doing some electrical work (because apparently the electrician he hired chose to ignore him when he said to wire the penthouse to both the main city powerline **and** the powerline running directly from the arc reactor), Tony's mind started drifting to Steve again. He knew Steve probably knew that he was going to try to go in for a kiss. After all, he might be from the sexually repressed 40's, but he wasn't stupid. Even though neither of them said anything about it the next morning, Tony knew they couldn't put off that conversation forever. No, they had to talk about it at some point and avoiding Steve was only delaying the inevitable.

Knowing that both Pepper and Conroy were going to be at the tower to celebrate their great achievement of creating the world's first self-sustaining skyscraper (or drowning their misery with champagne if things had ended up going the other way) he decided it would be the perfect opportunity to invite Steve over. With the two girls there, he'd have a bit to get comfortable and figure out what he was going to say, and once they left he planned to lay it all out for Steve; admit that he had sexual and maybe even romantic feelings for him. If Steve reciprocated, that'd be great. Then they'd figure out what to do from there; whether they wanted the whole "relationship" thing or just keep things casual and maybe work up to that. The thought of that was scary to Tony, but not as scary as the more likely result – that Steve would reject him. As much as he liked to keep his hopes high, Tony knew that this was how it would probably end up, which was why he busted out the good champagne for tonight. He got the horrible feeling that he'd be drowning his misery no matter what, and it was only getting worse now that the tower had been lit up without a hitch. Something was going to go wrong tonight. He could just feel it.

Tony's mind was taken away from his Steve-related worries as he heard JARVIS' voice come over the exterior speakers as pieces of the suit continued to be removed from him as he walked inside.

"Sir," the AI said. "Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the line." Tony rolled his eyes. Of course S.H.I.E.L.D. would call now of all times.

"I'm not in," Tony said as the helmet was removed from his face. "I'm actually out."

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting," JARVIS said.

"Grow a spine, JARVIS," Tony remarked. "Tell him that I have a date." It was the truth, even if his date hadn't shown up yet.

Stepping into the penthouse's living room, he could see Pepper intently studying the holographic screen in front of her. The screen showed a virtual schematic of the entire tower along with various readings on the building's power and energy status.

"Levels are holding steady," Pepper remarked as Tony came closer to her, not bothering to look behind her. "I think?"

"Of course they are," Tony assured. "I was directly involved, which brings me to my next question. How does it feel to be a genius?"

"Well, I really wouldn't know, now would I?" Pepper said as Tony came to stand next to her.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked. "All of this came from you." Pepper shook her head with a slight laugh.

"No," she said. "All of this came from that." She gestured to the Miniature Arc Reactor in Tony's chest. The thing was truly a breakthrough in modern science in more ways than one. Firstly, it was the first clean energy generator of that size to ever be constructed and function properly, which was amazing when you considered that Tony only constructed the first model while being held captive in Afghanistan with nothing but a handful of scraps. Secondly, it ran off a newly-discovered element that Tony managed to synthesize himself in his basement with (an admittedly crudely constructed) particle accelerator. So yes, Pepper was right in saying that the construction of Stark Tower wouldn't have happened without those two major breakthroughs, but she was still somewhat wrong.

"Give yourself some credit." Tony put a hand on her shoulder. "Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself… Twelve percent of the credit."

"Twelve percent?" Pepper raised an eyebrow.

"An argument can be made for fifteen," Tony quickly added.

"Twelve percent for my baby?" Pepper asked as she started to make her way over to the seating area.

"Christ," Lara said as she walked into the room with four champagne glasses in-hand. "If that's how much credit Pepper's getting for this, I don't wanna know how much I've earned."

"0.5." Lara scoffed at that.

"0.5?" She questioned. "I don't even get a whole percentage point? I was the one who had to sit on FaceTime with you while you told me which wires went where."

"You're forgetting I'm the one who did all the heavy lifting," Tony said. "Literally, I lifted the heavy things."

"And you had a suit of armor to help you with that," Lara pointed out as she poured herself a glass of sparkling water. Unfortunately, she couldn't participate in any of the festivities involving alcohol, but she could always pretend. "I, meanwhile, had no protection and ended up with a second-degree burn on my palm." She held up the wounded hand in question, showing a big, dark, red mark right between her palm and the heel of her hand. It looked like it was starting to heal, but it was obviously very painful for her to ordinary tasks, given how she was wincing as she poured herself a drink.

"I told you to put safety gloves on," Tony defended.

"Yeah," Lara said. "But I couldn't get my fingers those damn petit little wires with those things on. You should have made those wires bigger."

"Still, you shouldn't have taken them off," Tony pointed out as he began to pour two glasses of champagne for him and Pepper. "So, your fault, just like that little security snafu we had last week."

"Oh, God," Lara groaned. "Here we go again. That wasn't my fault."

"Twenty sweaty workmen all crowded in my private elevator," Tony said. "Explain to me how it wasn't your fault."

"Okay, I'll admit, I might have fibbed to the foreman guy about which elevator was the service elevator," she said. "But I don't see how that was a security concern. Besides, you're leaving out a key word there."

"Oh really?" Tony said. "And what would that be?"

"Sexy!" Lara exclaimed. "Those workmen were sexy and you know it!"

"Yeah," Tony said. "About as sexy as a truck stop men's room."

"I wish I could say you have no taste," Lara said. "But I've seen Steve, so that be an outright lie. You agree with me though, right Pepper? Those workmen were sexy, right?" Pepper fought back a smile as she swallowed down a sip of her drink.

"No comment," she said. Lara frowned rather dramatically.

"You're no fun, Pepper." At the same time, JARVIS spoke up again.

"Sir, the telephone," he said. "My protocols are being overwritten."

"Mr. Stark, we need to talk," a tiny, somewhat muffled voice said from a nearby counter. Tony quickly snatched up his cell phone and held it in front of his face. Looking at the display, Tony could see that it was none other than Phil Coulson who had hacked his phone. God, couldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. take a hint and leave a guy alone?

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark." Pepper laughed while Lara's eyebrows came together in confusion. "Can you please leave a message?"

"This is urgent," Coulson said.

"Then leave it urgently." As soon as Tony said that, the doors to the elevator came open, revealing that the Agent had also made his way up to the penthouse without triggering any of the security protocols. Great, now Tony was going to have to update those **again** just when he finished the last round of updates. "Security breach!"

"Phil, come in," Pepper greeted pleasantly while Lara got to her feet.

"Oh my gosh," she said. "I haven't seen you in so long!" She quickly crossed the room and gave the agent a big hug, which he returned. "How've you been?"

"Things could be going better," he said. "In fact, that's why I'm here. I don't have time to chat."

"Uh, first of all, his first name is Agent." Pepper shot Tony a glare. "Secondly, how the hell do you know him?"

"When I worked for the Secret Service, I ran into S.H.I.E.L.D. a few times," Lara said. "They tended to be very helpful, especially those times when someone tried to kill the President with a freaky experimental ray gun."

"I thought you never protected the President," Pepper said.

"My friend Todd did," Lara said. "And she introduced me to Phil and Melinda, who ended up being very helpful contacts to have in my line of work. Speaking of which, where is Melinda?"

"Uh, she's taking care of something for a friend," Coulson said.

"Classified?" Lara questioned.

"Very," Coulson confirmed.

"Forget I even asked then."

"Why don't you come in, Phil?" Pepper asked. "We're celebrating."

"Which is why he can't stay." Pepper shot Tony another glare.

"I need you to look this over," Coulson said as he held out a tablet to Tony.

"I don't like being handed things," Tony said.

"That's fine, because I love to be handed things. So, let's trade." Pepper handed Coulson her glass while she took the tablet and gave it to Tony, who still looked slightly annoyed.

"Official consulting hours are between three and five every other Thursday," Tony said.

"And the fact that coincides with Happy Hour at T.G.I. Friday's has nothing to do with it." This time, Tony shot Lara a glare.

"This isn't a consultation," Coulson said.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked. "Which I know nothing about."

"Can't say I've heard of it either." Lara said perfectly honestly.

"Psh," Tony scoffed. "The Avengers Initiative was **scrapped** , I thought, and I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either," Pepper assured.

"Apparently I'm volatile," Tony continued as he hooked up the tablet to the holographic projection screen. "Self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know," Pepper said.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said.

"Miss Potts, you've got a sec?" Pepper quickly joined Tony at the counter, leaving Lara to chat with Coulson.

"What's going on?" she asked. "What is all this?"

"This is, uh, this." Tony hit a button and the holographic screens came to life with the display images showing the files that Coulson had brought with him. On the far left, the images and tactical info about a Dr. Bruce Banner (A.K.A. the Hulk) were displayed, along with news footage from the fight that destroyed half of Harlem the previous year. On the far right, there were more images and tactical info, this time about a man by the name of Thor Odinson. Accompanying Thor's profile was grainy video surveillance footage of the man taking on a giant killer robot in the middle of a suburban street. Then there was the file in the dead center…

Steve's file contained just the general information about his origin and the effects the Super Soldier Serum had on him along with pictures of him pre and post-de-icing and old battle footage from World War II. Tony had already come clean to Pepper and Lara about who Steve truly was, so he wasn't worried about that. No, what worried him was the fact that Steve's file was included with the rest of the Avengers. He didn't know that Steve was supposed to be a part of the initiative. (Although, why S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to thaw him and have full access to him was starting to make more sense.) Worse yet, the fact that Tony was being handed these files at all was a bad sign. Looking glancing at the time display on one of the screens, Tony saw that it was 8:05. Steve had yet to show up. Tony knew that something bad was going down, and now all he hoped was that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't drag Steve into it (mostly for selfish reasons, but there were a few legitimate ones thrown in there, too.)

To distract himself, Tony turned his attention over to Pepper, whose eyes were flitting from screen to screen with a look of deep shock on her face. Tony listened as she took a deep breath and finally spoke up.

"I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight," she said. "You clearly have homework to do."

"Mmhm," Tony agreed as he stared disappointedly at the center screen. Pepper gave him a friendly peck on the cheek.

"I'll see you later." She then turned and went to escort Coulson back to the elevator. "Make sure you save some of that champagne for me." That caused Tony's lips to quirk upwards for a second, but not much longer than that. He opened his phone up to the messenger app. He'd been busy all day trying to get the tower up and running. He hadn't had time to check his messages after he texted Steve during brunch. When he finally got a look at his unread messages, though, he was met with heartbreak.

Captain Handsome: Something's come up. Sorry, but I can't make it.

Tony let out an exasperated breath. Yup, S.H.I.E.L.D. was in some pretty big trouble and of course they were going to lean on their golden boy to make everything alright. Still, there was nothing Tony could do but read the files and figure out a way he could help. Meanwhile, Lara walked up next to him and set her glass down on the counter.

"Well, looks like you've got your work cut out for you." Tony only nodded in response. "Anything I can help with?"

"Yeah," Tony said. "Can you go out and get me another bottle of this champagne? I'm going to need a lot of it." Lara looked concerned for a second but nodded.

"Sure thing," she said. "Anything else?" Tony shook his head. "Alright, I'll be here so let me know if you need anything else."

"You don't have to stay," Tony said. "You can go home."

"Please," Lara said. "You've clearly got work to do and if I'm not here to assist you, well then I just wouldn't be doing my job now, would I?" Tony gave her a small smile in gratitude.

"Thanks," he said.

"Don't mention it." Lara then turned and grabbed her coat before heading for the elevator herself. "Be right back," was all she said before the elevator doors closed, leaving Tony alone to wonder and worry.

* * *

 **Thank you to mfaerie 32 on FFN for the follow and the reviews and shekelash on AO3 for giving kudos! You guys rock! :)**

 **Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I hope everyone's having a good time! Me, I couldn't personally care about Christmas given that my family sucks, I'm not Christian, and the holiday is so overly commercialized at this point that it's really lost any and all of the meaning that it had to begin with. However, it gives me an excuse to post, which is why you're getting chapters today and tomorrow.**

 **Of course, this scene had changes to it. It was kind of obvious given that Tony/Pepper isn't a thing in this universe. Not that I have a problem with the Tony/Pepper pairing - I read fics about them all the time - but I just prefer Steve/Tony a little bit more. That being said, I hope I was able to cut back on the flirtiness between the two of them. As established in MHATRAR, although the two of them quickly failed as a couple, they still remain close friends and I hope that's what comes across here.**

 **Remember kids, I don't trust anything or anyone below the sun. I don't feel anything at all...**

* * *

 **Originally posted on 12/24/18**


	5. Penny in the Air

**Merry Christmas!**

* * *

 **Saturday, September 3rd, 2011**

"So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?" Steve asked as the man who had introduced himself as Agent Phil Coulson came over. He had already read the files back at his apartment and had them memorized front-to-back. He still couldn't believe some of what he read through. Norse Gods? A man and a monster inhabiting the same body? The fact that they still had that faulty character report in Tony's file? All these things were somewhat beyond comprehension for Steve, but he couldn't say that he was honestly surprised by them. After all, he did just come from the 1940s where red-faced Nazis built magic guns that instantly vaporized people. Try explaining that to someone with a straight face and expect to be taken seriously.

"A lot of people were," Coulson explained. "You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought Gamma Radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve remarked as the Hulk fought against the National Guardsmen trying to subdue him in the video footage playing back on the tablet he had been given. That incident had taken place at Culver University in Virginia the previous year. According to the text accompanying the footage, Banner had gone back there to retrieve some research files and things escalated quickly. It was tough to watch.

"Not so much," Coulson agreed. "When he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking." Steve gave Coulson a slightly confused look. "He's like a smart person."

Steve had to keep himself from laughing. He knew who Stephen Hawking was. He'd heard Tony mention the guy a few times and he was a featured article on Wikipedia at one point. He just liked seeing people's baffled faces when they realized he didn't get the reference. It was even better when the person he was talking to didn't know he was displaced sixty years in time. However, Steve kept himself from laughing and just gave Coulson a small nod of understanding.

"I gotta say," Coulson said. "It's an honor to meet you, officially. I've sort of met you. I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping." Steve turned his gaze to the ground. You could cut the awkward in that Quinjet with a knife. Coulson kept trying to rephrase it in a way that sounded less creepy. "You know, it's really such a huge honor to have you on board with this…" Thankfully, Steve took the subject change as he stood up to look out the jet's window.

"I hope I'm the man for the job," he said.

"Oh, you are," Coulson assured. "Absolutely. Uh, we made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform?" Steve questioned. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little old-fashioned?"

"With everything that's happening," Coulson said. "And the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old-fashioned." Steve didn't say anything, just looked at Coulson in silent agreement.

* * *

They were dozens of feet below the surface of the Earth. Very few people knew that these tunnels even existed. They didn't even know that the land the tunnels were **under** even existed. Thus, the minion that had labeled himself "Hawkeye" had assured his master they wouldn't be found. Despite the assurances, Loki remained on edge. He had pairs of the soldier-minions patrolling the corridors every few minutes under strict instructions to kill anyone unfamiliar on-sight. He couldn't have anyone disrupting the construction of the machine. If he didn't have that completed and the invasion of Earth taking place on time, well, he didn't want to imagine what would happen to him.

As if on cue the gem in Loki's scepter began to glow and Loki's eyes drifted shut. When he opened them again, he wasn't in the deep underground tunnel anymore. Instead, he was in space, standing on the surface of the asteroid where he found himself abandoned on oh so long ago. The hooded figure that had discovered Loki that day – whom Loki had come to mentally refer to as "the other" – stood before him. Loki tried to give off the utmost sense of restraint and confidence as he looked his previous tormentor in the eyes.

"The Chitauri grow restless," the Other said.

"Let them grid themselves," Loki dismissed as an illusionary image of himself appeared in front of the Other. "I will lead them into glorious battle."

"Battle?" the Other questioned. "Against the meager might of Earth?"

"Glorious," Loki stressed. "Not lengthy if your force is formidable as you claim."

"You question us?" Loki could physically feel his adrenaline spike at the Other's snapping tone. He managed to keep a calm outward demeanor. It was easy to do that when the other person could only see a psychically-generated image of yourself. "You question him?" The other gestured upwards to the asteroid upon which Thanos' throne sat. The implied threat wasn't lost on Loki.

Although Loki had been a servant of Thanos for… He couldn't even remember how long now, but he had only been in the Titan's presence only twice. Once, when the Other first discovered him, and the second time only a few Earth days ago when he was sent off to conquer the planet. The Other had been the one to handle his "integration" into Thanos' band of genocidal murderers. Integration probably wasn't the proper word, though. He was kept isolated. The only person he saw other than the Other was a woman with green skin who wordlessly brought him something to eat a few times. Otherwise, there was no one. However, he couldn't think of a kinder word for what he went through, so he was going to stick with integration.

The entire time he went through the integration process, the Other had taunted him and threatened him. All of which were some of the sickest and vile things someone could say to another person, but Loki was able to handle it. He knew everyone had said those things about him behind his back at some point or another. It was refreshing for someone to have the courage to say it to his face. There was one threat, though, that always struck, well for lack of a better term, the fear of God into Loki; one thing that the Other could say that would make even Loki's cold, mischievous heart shrivel in terror.

 _"This is nothing,"_ the Other would say as he inflicted another integration method upon him. _"Compared to what Thanos can do, this is child's play. You will submit to Thanos. You will obey Thanos unquestioningly. You are now a servant of Thanos. You have no freedom. Freedom is a lie. There is only Thanos and death. Betray Thanos and you will long for death."_ That always made Loki shiver. He knew exactly how Thanos would repay a failure to produce results or an outright betrayal, and the Other was right. Integration would be nothing compared to that. Loki was determined to keep that from happening at all costs.

Loki didn't realize that he had spaced out for a second until he heard the Other say something that truly made his blood boil.

"…When you were cast out, defeated?" Instantly Loki was filled with murderous rage.

"I was a king!" he snapped. "The rightful King of Asgard betrayed."

"Your ambition is little," the Other growled. "And born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil."

"You don't have the Tesseract yet," Loki pointed out. The Other hissed and jumped in front of Loki, coming to stop in a position that looked odd, but would probably allow the Other to kill him easier if he was in front of him and not just a psychic projection. Loki maintained a calm assuring expression. "I do not threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command you are but words." Loki felt a bit of smug satisfaction. He had been wanting to say something along those lines for quite some time. It didn't last, though.

"You will have your war, Asgardian," the Other said as he slowly walked around the God of Mischief. "If you fail; if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you." The Other came to a stop directly behind Loki. "You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain."

Loki could feel the other touch the side of his head. Seriously, he could **feel** it. That shouldn't have been possible. The Other shouldn't have been able to do that; his hand should have gone straight through the projection. Instead, it came to rest on his forehead, and when it did it felt like a thousand suns crashing together in a lightning storm inside of his skull. Never had he felt such pain, not even when he was put through integration. Loki's eyes tightened shut and he let out a scream of agony.

Snapping his eyes back open and gasping for breath, Loki took a cautious look around his surroundings. He was back in the underground tunnel network. Selvig was still working on the device with the scientist-minions. The soldier-minions were still patrolling. The Hawkeye stood in front of the device, staring at the Tesseract. He was where he was supposed to be. The pain was gone. All of that was good.

Still, Loki's eyes couldn't help but drift to the gem at the center of his scepter. Supposedly, it was a part of the Tesseract, or at least powered by it. Loki didn't believe that, though. Whenever he reached out to it with his magic, it felt much different than the Tesseract did. The Tesseract felt smooth, swirling, with a slight current to it; almost like water draining through a funnel or an interstellar vortex. The gem in his staff, though… It felt much different. It felt rough, twisted, churning… It made him think of the roots of an old, gnarled tree only much less tangible than that. It also felt like fire and electricity… He had seen Thor strike down an opponent once with a bolt of lightning and immediately after the unconscious person fell backward into a burning pit below. How he had imagined the pain of that was exactly how that gem felt. It struck both fascinated awe and unimaginable terror into Loki at the same time.

It was clear that the Other had some sort of connection to the gem. That's how Loki had been psychically pulled in to the conversation, and he could imagine that was how the other was able to harm him even though he was only a mere illusionary image. That… Loki didn't even want to think about all the horrible scenarios that could go along with such a thought. Instead, he got up and got back to work. His plan was far from being completed and he would get nothing accomplished if he just sat on his ass all day.

 _Freedom is a lie_ , he reminded himself. _You are a servant of Thanos now._

* * *

It felt like they had been flying around for much longer than an hour. In fact, Steve wouldn't be surprised if they had flown in circles at a few points. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably wanted to keep the location of their emergency secret base a secret. So, when they finally touched down on the aircraft carrier, Steve was just happy to be able to get up and stretch his legs. He was also the tiniest bit happier when he caught sight of a familiar face.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson introduced as the redhead came over.

"We've met," she said. "Good to see you again, Captain."

"You too, ma'am," Steve said.

"Natasha," she corrected before turning her attention to Coulson. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."

"See you there," Coulson said with a nod before heading off into the ship's main cabin. Natasha started walking in the other direction and gestured with a small jerk of her head that Steve should follow her.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," she said. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve questioned.

"They're vintage," Natasha said. "He's very proud." Steve, didn't know how to respond to that, but luckily this time he caught sight of another familiar face in the crowd of S.H.I.E.L.D. airmen and agents. Albeit, one that he hadn't met before.

"Dr. Banner," Steve called out to the scientist, who looked very awkward and out of place. He held out his hand for the other man to shake.

"Uh, yeah, hi," Banner said as he walked over and took the offered hand. "They told me you would be coming."

"Word is you can find the Cube," Steve said.

"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce looked around and wrung his knuckles together.

"Only word I care about." That seemed to take the edge off Bruce's expression, but only just. He nodded and gestured around the area.

"This must be strange for you," he said. "All of this." A pleasant smile graced Steve's face for a few seconds. Looking around, yes, one could easily see how Steve would feel out of place. Yes, while they had aircraft carriers back in World War II, Steve had strangely never been on one before, so that was a new experience in and of itself. Add on top of that the massive amounts of high-tech planes, weaponry, and electronics stationed all over the place and you had the recipe for one out-of-place Super Soldier. However, there was something familiar about it all. The atmosphere, the organized chaos… He felt as if he closed his eyes for at least one second, he could easily pretend he was back in 1945; that he could turn around and Peggy would be standing there, ready to whisk him off to another strategy meeting. However, that wasn't real and while Steve hadn't come to accept all of it yet, he at least accepted that none of that was coming back. Still, he rejoiced in the familiar feeling for just a few moments. No one could blame him for that.

"Well," Steve said to Bruce. "this is actually kind of familiar

"Gentlemen," Natasha interrupted. "You might want to step inside in a minute." Both Steve and Bruce gave her puzzled looks. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe." Just as she said that loud mechanical **clangs** could be heard all over the place and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could be heard shouting orders. Steve looked at Bruce, thinking he might have a possible explanation for this, but the scientist looked just as puzzled as he was.

"Is this a submarine?" Even as he said that he realized it didn't make sense. After all, how were they supposed to launch planes from under the surface of the water and wouldn't they clear the deck of all agents and personnel before they began their decent? At the same time, Bruce looked rightly concerned.

"Really?" he said. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"

The two men walked to the edge of the carrier's flight deck. Looking down they saw a giant fan emerging from the water. At first, it could easily be mistaken for some sort of submerging mechanism, but once it clicked into place and the carrier started rising, it became clear that the vessel was both sea and air capabilities. Steve had to take a couple of steps backward in sheer shock, and Bruce gave a sort of humorless laugh.

"No, no," he said. "This is much worse."

Well, Steve at least knew one thing for certain right there and then: he owed Nick Fury ten bucks.

* * *

Tony slowly pulled his head up off the smooth surface of the countertop he had passed out at. His neck was stiff and he could feel a particular vein throbbing in his left temple, but overall he didn't feel too bad, likely because he didn't go overboard with the drinking the night before. Yes, he was somewhat upset that S.H.I.E.L.D. thwarted his and Steve's could-have-been date but he was too distracted by all the research he had to do to really get all-out wasted. So as a result, he didn't have too much of a hangover and there would be plenty of champagne waiting for Pepper when she got back. So, that was all good.

Tony rubbed at his aching head and looked around him. The tablet in front of him was still pulled up to Dr. Selvig's notes. Tony had already read them, twice, but was looking through them one last time just to make sure he didn't miss anything important about the Tesseract. That's when he fell asleep. Slowly turning to look out the window, Tony realized it was much brighter outside than it was when he last remembered being awake. He tried to suppress a groan.

"JARVIS, what time is it?" Tony squeezed his eyes shut.

"It is ten o'clock in the morning, Sir." That wasn't as bad as he'd thought it'd be. Although, that meant he only got five hours of sleep, but at least he didn't sleep until some ridiculous hour like two in the afternoon again. That enabled Tony to move on to his next order of business.

"Where's Conroy?"

"She passed out in front of the holographic display about seven hours ago." Tony nodded.

"Thanks, J."

Tony got to his feet and headed over to where Lara had passed out. Sprigs of blonde hair had broken free from her braid, her glasses were eschewed at an awkward angle on her face, and it appeared that she had attempted to use her right arm as a makeshift pillow and that honestly just wasn't too comfortable for her. Tony was gentle as he shook her shoulder and called out her name, so it came as some surprise when she tried to elbow him in the face.

"Je suis désolé, maman!" She cried out. "Arrête!"

"What?" Tony narrowly dodged the blow and grabbed ahold of Lara's arm to keep her from attacking him again. "Non non! Je ne suis pas ta maman! Réveillez-vous!" With that, Lara's eyes snapped open and darted around the room in clear confusion.

"Tony?" she finally said. "What the shit? Let go of my arm!"

"Sorry," Tony said as he let go of the appendage. "You okay?"

"Fine," Lara dismissed as she forced herself to sit up. "Probably need a shot of insulin, but fine. What time is it?"

"Ten." Lara groaned.

"Why?" It came out as an overly dramatic whine. Tony stifled the urge to chuckle.

"I need an update on the search for the cube," he said. "Got any leads?"

"Ah, yeah, give me a sec." Lara pulled herself to her feet and tapped on the counter to bring the holographic screens back to life. When she got back from the liquor store the night before, Tony had her manning the computer as it ran a facial recognition search for Selvig across all private and public security surveillance cameras across the world that JARVIS could hack into. It was essentially busy work, but Tony couldn't ask her to read all the files for him and then transfer the knowledge into his brain. However, the fact that the program was still running was a testament to the fact that thus far the search had been fruitless. "Nothing yet, but honestly I'm not surprised. All the people this Loki guy has working for him are S.H.I.E.L.D., right? They'd know how to avoid being spotted."

"Eh, it was worth a…" Before Tony could finish that sentence, the holographic screens lit up and started flashing, indicating that it had found a match.

"Hot damn." Lara tapped the screen to give more information. "Well isn't that convenient? He was just caught on surveillance in…"

"28 Konigstrasse, Stuttgart, Germany," Tony finished for her. "I've got to go." Before Lara could say anything he headed off to the suit assembly station out on the exterior balcony. He stepped on to the platform and the machines around him came to life, locking and screwing everything into its proper place. Lara caught up to him then.

"Wait!" She said as she ran up to the platform. "Isn't there anything else you need to know before you zip off to kick this guy's ass?"

"Nope," Tony said, popping the "p." "Did all my homework last night."

"Congratulations, you get a gold star." Unfortunately, the helmet snapped over Tony's head at that moment, so Lara couldn't see him roll his eyes. "Well, is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Yeah," Tony said once the faceplate snapped over his face and the HUD lit up in front of him. "I need you to stay here and keep an eye on the building's power levels. They should remain stable, but call me if the power goes out – either here or to the rest of the city, alright?"

"Do I need to keep my eyes on it the whole time or can I shower and take a nap?" Tony sighed.

"Shower, take a nap, do whatever you like," he said. "Just keep an eye on those power levels and call me if something goes wrong." Lara gave him a thumbs up.

"You got it, Boss," she said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Tony said. "But I don't need it." He then turned and launched himself off the assembly platform, taking off on what was sure to be a long, harrowing journey.

* * *

 **Thanks to Balletgrl046 for leaving kudos and bookmarking, along with kagsfan on AO3! I hope you both have a happy holiday! :)**

 **Yeah, please ignore any issues regarding time-zones in the next couple of chapters. I don't have a good understanding of how they work and the public education system failed me. Thanks, Clinton, Bush, and Obama.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all are having a Merry Christmas! Have fun to celebrate capitalism and consumerism! I, meanwhile, am going to be trying to convince my mom that we need to hold an intervention for my aunt (my family's fucked.)**

 **Remember kids, Santa Clause is a murderer! He ran over some poor child's grandmother as she was walking home one Christmas Eve! This holiday is for a murderer! Please don't celebrate murderers!**

* * *

 **Originally posted to FFN on 12/25/18.**


	6. Me? I Hate the Cold

**What's up you beautiful bastards? I hope you're having a fantastic Saturday! Welcome back to "Unbroken" and let's just jump into it!**

* * *

 **Saturday, September 3rd, 2011**

On a subconscious level, Clint knew that something was wrong. His senses were both dulled and heightened at the same time. It was like being under the effects of some extremely powerful drug. Everything he saw was sharper, brighter, clearer, and his reaction time had increased ten-fold. However, at the same time, he noticed that something was off with his hearing. At first, he thought that his implants were malfunctioning, but when he tested them out by snapping his fingers near his ears, he found that he could hear that just fine. Same with the sound of objects being moved or the various **beeps** and **clangs** that came from the equipment the scientists were using to construct the device. It was just people's voices that sounded off. If Selvig or someone else said something to him, it would sound like they were talking far away and underwater. He had to concentrate, otherwise, he would completely miss what they were saying to him. The only exception to this rule was Loki. Loki's voice came in as clear as a bell.

He didn't know what happened when Loki touched the scepter to his heart, but whatever it was it felt amazing. With just that one touch he felt as though he gained all the knowledge in the universe at once, and all that knowledge was telling him that he must serve Loki, so that's what he did. He only thought of serving Loki, and if his thoughts began to stray from that purpose or doing what Loki asked of him, he would relive that whole nightmare scenario all over again. He'd run to the house, see it blow up, know that Laura and the kids were gone, find Nat, and then… Then it'd be Budapest all over again. Then he'd be set on the right path and continue to do as he was told; no questions and no resistance.

While he worked to serve Loki, he somehow felt like he was on autopilot, or more accurately in cruise control on the fast lane. He was in complete control of the car. He knew what he was doing or where he was going, but at the same time, he wasn't really the one making the car go. His foot was off the gas pedal and he could go nowhere but straight to whatever destination he was supposed to arrive at. It was disconcerting, but he couldn't really think on it too much, lest he is forced to sit through his mind's featured broadcast presentation once again. So, he let it all go and just focused on serving Loki. That really was all he could truly do.

So, when Loki asked him what the Tesseract had shown him, he answered honestly and said his next target. Well, somewhat honestly. That wasn't all, but that's the information he had somehow telepathically been given and needed to share at that moment, and when asked what he needed to execute that mission, he once again answered with full honesty.

"A distraction, and an eyeball."

* * *

Tony always had a thing for flashy entrances. When he walked into a party, everyone had to know he was there and remember him. Not only did it fit in with his lavish playboy façade, but it was also just plain fun. So, as soon as JARVIS notified him that a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet had just arrived in the area, he naturally hacked into their coms system and started to play a little AC/DC. Before the song started playing, he clearly heard the voice of Natasha Romanoff on the coms line. That just made this more perfect.

"Agent Romanoff," he said with a smirk as he rolled up to the scene. "You miss me?"

As soon as he swooped in, Tony knocked Loki to the ground with a repulsor blast to the chest. Once he landed – rather gracefully – on the ground and aimed all his weaponry at the Norse God, who was on his back, gasping for breath, and slowly sat up.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games." Tony had been expecting Loki to put up a fight, and it was clear that Steve was, too, as he came to stand beside him, holding his shield at the ready. Oddly, though, Loki seemingly surrendered; holding up his hands and allowing his scepter and horned helmet to disappear into thin air. Tony raised his eyebrows. "Good move." Slowly, Tony powered down his weapons systems and lower his gauntlets. Not able to resist any longer, he took a glance at the man to his left.

Steve looked good; damn good. The new uniform suited him well, fitting like a glove and highlighting all of Steve's best assets. Tony probably stared for a little too long and let his mind wander to dirty places he shouldn't have, given the situation. Despite this, he also managed to notice that S.H.I.E.L.D. had given him his proper shield back. Good. Vibranium was hard to come by and it had already been proven that anything else wouldn't be strong enough for him after he tried to use that replica the last time they fought together.

Everything else aside, Tony wasn't surprised to see Steve there. This was clearly an all-hands-on-deck situation for S.H.I.E.L.D. and of course, they would call in their golden boy Super Soldier to save the day. He just wished it hadn't gotten in the way of their date. No matter. From what he could tell Steve was still in one piece and they could talk later once they got this mess straightened out. (Granted, it wasn't going to be the romantic scenario that Tony had played out in his head with dim lights, mood music, and well-stocked bedroom with a king-sized bed and soundproof walls just in case of the nearly impossible result of Steve not only returning his feelings, but wanting to do something about them right then and there came to pass, but Tony could take what he could get.) Tony was glad he had the helmet on. If anyone could see how much he was smiling at that moment, well, Tony wouldn't have minded because **damn** he was just so happy to see Steve. Nothing could burst his bubble, not when he was high on just being near another person.

Well, that is unless the person in question has a tack. That could certainly burst a bubble like that.

"Mr. Stark." The cold tone with which Steve said that immediately threw Tony off-guard. The shock was like being doused with a bucket of ice water. Sure, he hadn't expected Steve to look at him with nothing but love in his eyes and run into his arms like a damn Nicholas Sparks novel, but that was just mean. Tony tried to think of anything he might have said or done recently that might have upset Steve. The only thing that was coming to mind was…

 _Oh God,_ he thought. _He's not pissed at me for trying to kiss him, is he?_ Tony couldn't be sure. He didn't seem angry when it happened, or the following morning, or when he texted him the other day. Still, though, he could have changed his mind or come to his senses or maybe he never felt that way at all and only just realized…

No matter what it was, Tony couldn't help but feel upset by that cold greeting. Regardless of the reason if Steve wanted to be like that, fine. Tony could be just as cold. Treat others as you'd like to be treated, after all.

"Captain." For once, Tony was **glad** that the speaker system on the suit made him sound like an emotionless robot.

* * *

When you grow up being told something is wrong or bad – no matter whether the thing in question truly is wrong or bad – the stigma of it tends to stick with you for a long time, sometimes even the rest of your life. When Steve was a child, homosexuality was illegal. If you got caught or were publicly outed, an arrest was the **best** result you could hope for. It was either that, be targeted for hate crimes and even attempted murder from the community at large or be taken to the asylum. Absolutely nothing was more terrible in Steve's mind than being committed to a lunatic asylum. He had accidentally overheard his mother confiding her experience as a nurse working at an asylum one time when they were particularly hard-up for cash. It made his mother **cry**. That said something to Steve; absolutely avoid getting committed to an asylum at all costs. So, he did everything he could to protect the fact that he was bisexual. He didn't tell anyone, not even his best friend Bucky. The only person who he ever willingly revealed it to was Peggy, and that was only because had been in love with her and trusted her implicitly. (Which for the most part his trust was well-placed. The only person she had told was Tony, and that was long after he'd been frozen in the ice, and he'd come to accept her reasoning behind that betrayal.) Other than that, no one knew. It was safer that way.

Once he was reawakened in the twenty-first century, he learned that things were different. Well, there were still a few blunders and confusions here and there, but eventually, it was all straightened out. He learned that being gay or bisexual was much more accepted today than it had been sixty-five years ago. Plenty of people were openly gay or bi and yes while there was still a lot of stigma behind it, they hadn't been arrested or detained to a mental facility. Tony, for example, was openly and publicly bisexual and he was freaking **Iron Man**. (Granted, Steve also knew that Tony also didn't come out of the closet willingly and had a hell of a time with the media scrutiny immediately following that revelation, so maybe he wasn't a good example, but still…) Things were still bad, but they weren't as bad as they had been. Society was slowly making more and more progress to acceptance. Steve was happy about that. However, no matter how much progress is made, it still can't erase even the basest levels of fear.

Steve had thought he'd come to accept that being gay was okay now. Apparently, he was wrong. As soon as he saw Tony, though he felt something he hadn't felt in over a year: fear. That horrifying heart-crippling fear that made his head move at a million miles per second and everything else slow down around him. Steve didn't know what it was the first time it happened to him, but now he knew, it was simple self-preservation. He didn't think he had those instincts at all, given his propensity for self-sacrifice, but they still lingered in there, somewhere deep inside him. When he looked at Tony in private, all Steve could think about was what a wonderful person he was – smart, funny, beautiful – and how he just wanted to pull him close and keep him there for the rest of their natural lives. When he looked at Tony in public, though, (or at least around people he didn't trust.) Steve's mind slipped back into that mindset he had back in the forties. If anyone even got the inkling of an idea that he might be attracted – both romantically and sexually – to Tony Stark, then he'd be putting himself and maybe Tony, too, in danger. He'd go into a do-or-die mode, ready to do whatever it would take to keep both him and Tony alive.

Tony didn't know about this. Mostly because it pretty much went to the back of Steve's mind after the first time it happened. There wasn't much of a need for Steve to think about it. Every time he'd seen Tony they'd either be alone or in the company of Pepper, Rhodey, and/or Lara. All of them had proven to be trustworthy to Steve. Pepper and Lara had figured it out for themselves (mostly because they walked in on Steve and Tony **platonically** sleeping together) and said nothing about it. He didn't know if Rhodey had pieced it together or not, but Tony assured him that if Rhodey did, he wouldn't publicly out him. Apparently, when Tony and Rhodey were college roommates there was an incident involving a sock falling off a door and that's how Rhodey found out? (Steve wasn't sure, that's just how it got told to him.) Regardless, Rhodey knew long before Tony was publicly outed and didn't tell anyone. If Rhodey figured it out Steve could trust him not to say anything about him either. Hence, he and Tony hadn't been together around other people for a long time, and now they were and that was stirring up old thoughts and worries for Steve.

So, Steve panicked. The self-preservation instincts in his mind were telling him that if S.H.I.E.L.D. caught on to Steve's feelings, they'd be in trouble. Rather than risking his and – more importantly – Tony's safety, the best thing he could think to do was try to remain detached. It was painful, but it's what was necessary for survival. At least, that's how he figured it in his mind.

Tony, obviously, hadn't taken the cold reception very well. That was very apparent now that they were standing in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet facing opposite sides of the plane while Loki sat tied up a few feet away from them. The Norse God had surrendered easily, allowing the agents to secure his hands while Natasha patted him down. As far as she could tell, he didn't have any other weapons on him and they were given the okay to bring Loki back to the Helicarrier base. Tony claimed to be exhausted after flying all the way from New York to Germany in the suit and asked Natasha with a "pretty please" to let him hitch a ride to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret base with them. Natasha agreed, but only because she felt safer having the extra hands ready to deal with Loki at any given time and because he "asked nicely."

So, here they were. Steve did everything he could not look in Tony's direction. He was afraid if he even looked at Tony the wrong way, there'd be some sort of problem. So, instead, he kept his gaze fixed on a random point in front of him. The only times he took his eyes away from that was when he periodically looked over at Loki just to make sure that the prisoner was behaving.

The thing was, Loki **was** behaving, which seemed extremely odd given that less than twenty minutes ago he was blowing up cars and demanding that everyone kneel before him. Yes, they had cornered him and put him in a bad spot, but Steve would have thought that once they had Loki secluded from the public, he'd attempt to do whatever he could to escape. Instead, he seemed to be willingly cooperating and that just put a bad feeling in Steve's gut. Unable to handle those concerns on top of everything else he was already worried about, Steve turned to look at Tony. It only made one situation worse, but if he got his other worries off his chest, it might serve to make himself feel a little better.

"I don't like it," Steve confessed, looking pointedly at Loki.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"I don't remember it being that easy," Steve said. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still," Tony said. "You are pretty spry for an older fellow." The annoyance Steve was feeling only increased as he noticed Tony's eyes slowly travel up and down his body.

 _Seriously, Tony,_ he thought. _You're going to pull this crap **now**? _He wished he could tell him to knock it off, but Natasha and the other agent were still within earshot, not to mention the fact that they had an enemy combatant held captive a few feet from them. If he pointed out that Tony was checking him out, there was no way that would end well. He chose to ignore it. That would have worked out well if Tony didn't follow the action up with a remark.

"What's your thing," Tony asked. "Pilates?" Steve furrowed his brow.

"What?"

"It's like calisthenics," Tony clarified. "You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

At that point, Steve got the message. So Tony was mad at how distant he was being. Fine. He could be that way. Steve wasn't going to stop. It was keeping them both safe, and he could be just as snide right back.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," he said.

"Yeah," Tony said. "There's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

Before anyone could say anything else, they were distracted by a bright flash of lightning that could clearly be seen from the Quinjet's windshield. It was extremely loud and incredibly close, so close that if it were possible for someone to climb out onto the plane's wings and reach out, they could probably touch it. What was worse was that it was followed up by several more lightning strikes, all of which were in frightening proximity to the plane.

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha questioned aloud, though it sounded like she was more awed than concerned. There's a trained pilot for you. Loki, however, had a worried expression come over his face.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked the God. "Are you scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Steve was going to ask what he meant, but he was quickly cut of as the plane lurched violently. He looked over to Natasha and the other agent flying the plane. They both calmly got the aircraft to stabilize, but it was clear that whatever had happened wasn't their doing. Natasha's gaze went upwards and Steve followed it and was shocked by what he saw. A person had landed on top of the aircraft.

Sharing a brief look with Tony, Steve rushed to grab his shield and pull the cowl over his head. Tony put the helmet back on and it quickly snapped back to life. Steve watched as Tony hit a button on the wall and the Quinjet's rear hatch came open.

"What are you doing?" Steve shouted over the roar of the wind. He didn't get a response as a muscular man with long blond hair landed on the ramp and strode inside. Tony was getting ready to fire a repulsor blast at the man, before the man whacked him in the chest with a hammer, sending Tony flying clear across the jet. The man then grabbed Loki by the chest, dragged him back down the ramp, and jumped from the plane, taking Loki with him. Steve stood there for a second in shock. Tony got to his feet.

"And then there's that guy," he said.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha questioned.

"Is that guy a friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter," Tony said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony then started to make his way over to the still open rear hatch.

"Stark," Steve called out to try and stop him. "We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan," Tony said. "Attack!" He then took off after the two men. Steve had to stifle a groan of annoyance as he raced to grab a parachute. He quickly slipped the pack over his shoulders and quickly clicked all the pieces of the safety harness into place.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha called from the co-pilot's seat.

"I don't see how I can," Steve responded.

"These guys come from legend," Natasha warned. "They're basically Gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am," Steve said as he quickly ran through a final safety check. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

Satisfied that the parachute was securely on his shoulders, Steve picked his shield back up and moved to the rear of the plane. Without any hesitation, he jumped from the aircraft, making his body as aerodynamic as possible to get to what was surely going to be an intense brawl that much faster.

* * *

 **Thank you to mfaerie32 on FNN for the review and FriedChickenNisha for the comments on AO3! It really means a lot!**

 **Yay! Finally some Steve/Tony interaction! Granted, they're not exactly being too friendly with each other at the moment. I wonder why that is?**

 **Remember kids, if you liked this chapter, hit that kudos button! If you're new here, hit that follow button, but with that said, of course, my name is Melinda Williams, you've just got your fill of Stony for today! I love your faces and I'll see you Monday!**

* * *

 **Originally posted to FFN on 12/29/18**


	7. Two-Faced Lovers

**Welcome to the last chapter of 2018! (Also, there's a line in here that I paraphrased Twitter. I'd credit the person, but I can't seem to find that Tweet again. I remember the guy's name was Travis and he had a _Doctor Who_ icon, so thank you for your comedic brillience, Travis!) **

* * *

**Saturday, September 3rd, 2011**

Loki groaned as he hit the ground. For the most part, he was okay. It just knocked the wind right out of him. Still, Thor didn't have to throw him **that** hard. Regardless, Loki couldn't help but laugh. He had been expecting this. He knew that Odin would send Thor to collect him like he was a misbehaving child. Granted, he thought Thor would show um much sooner, but better late than never he supposed.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor demanded.

"I missed you, too," Loki laughed.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" No, he didn't. Loki started to sit up.

"You should thank me," Loki said with a bit of strain in his voice. "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here, your precious Earth?" With that, Thor dropped his hammer and pulled Loki to his feet.

"I thought you dead," he said.

"Did you mourn?" Loki asked, though he already knew the answer. No. No one did. No one cared. Not Thor, not his "mother" and "father", not any of his supposed "friends". They all went on with their lives as if nothing happened. No one could be bothered to care about him. That's how it always was and that's how it always will be. Still, he was taken a little by surprise with what Thor said next.

"We all did," he admitted. "Our father…"

 ** _Lies!_** The word screamed in a loud, ear-piercing tone through Loki's brain. **_No one cared for you! They were the ones that betrayed you! Thor, Odin… You didn't matter one bit to either of them! You were just a monster they took pity on!_**

"Your father." Loki bitterly raised a finger in correction. At that point, Thor let him go. "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?" Slowly, Loki walked past Thor, rubbing a particularly sore spot on his back. He couldn't look at Thor's face and see his reaction. Either Thor would accuse him of lying or already know the truth. Loki didn't want to see which look he'd give him, anger or pity.

"We were raised together," Thor called out. So, pity then. "We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember a shadow," Loki turned said. "Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss." As he said that, Loki couldn't help but feel a bit of uncertainty concerning that memory. However, he managed to cover it by throwing an extra bit of spite on to his words. "I, who was, and should be, king!"

 _…And will be,_ Loki mentally added.

"So you take the world I love as a recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor questioned. "No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki." Loki laughed in response.

"And you're doing a marvelous job with that," he said. "The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, as why should I not?"

"You think yourself above them?" Thor asked.

"Well, yes," Loki said like it was obvious.

"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother," Thor said. "A throne would suit you ill." Loki growled, shoved Thor as he passed him, and climbed back up to the top of the cliff they were standing on.

"I've seen worlds you've never known about!" Loki shouted. "I've grown, **Odinson** , in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it…"

"Who showed you this power?" Thor asked as he approached. "Who controls the would-be king?"

Loki smiled. He wanted to say it. He wanted to throw it right in Thor's face. No one controlled him. Not Odin, not Thor, not even **Thanos**. The only person who controlled Loki was himself, and soon he'd conquer both Earth and Asgard and…

A high-pitched shrill whining cut Loki off from that train of thought. Once the whining stopped he couldn't remember what he'd been thinking about, but he was suddenly filled with rage over Thor's would-be king remark.

"I am a king!" he snapped.

"Not here!" Thor grabbed Loki by the shoulders and shoved him a few steps backward. "You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" Thor's expression then softened a bit and put a hand on Loki's neck affectionately. "You come home." Loki sincerely looked into Thor's eyes.

"I don't have it." Thor shoved Loki again as he backed away. He instantly summoned Mjolnir and raised it threateningly. "You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off, I know not where."

"You listen well, brother." Before Thor could continue with what he was saying, a streak of red and gold swooped in and flew off at a high speed, but not without taking Thor with him. Loki was left standing there staring at nothing but a cloud of smoke and dust.

Unphased, and mostly for his own amusement, Loki said: "I'm listening." He then turned and moved to sit at the edge of the cliff. From his perch, he could clearly get a good look at the scuffle that was about to take place between his "brother" and the "Iron Man". This worked out perfectly for him. He knew Thor's fighting style like the back of his hand, but this would give him a chance to watch the one they called "Stark" in action.

While he sat watching the fight, Loki couldn't help but be bothered by what was going on in his mind. He had no idea what he'd been thinking before he heard that loud whine, but it bothered him that he had lost the train of thought so suddenly. There was the uncertainty he felt concerning the memory of falling into the black hole. For some reason, looking back on it now, it looked somewhat fuzzy, blurry… He could have sworn that Thor had thrown him off the Bifrost, but now? He couldn't be sure. There was something wrong with the memory. That much was clear. Had someone tampered with it? No! Of course not! He was **Loki** , a master magician. If anyone tried to mess with his mind, surely he'd be able to stop them, right?

Just as he was questioning that, Loki heard the whining start back up and a bolt of pain shot through his head. Bringing his hand up to cradle the affected area, Loki had found it was the same spot the Other had touched him during their psychic conference. His eyes went wide in realization and he quickly put his hands down and calmly waited for the noise to stop and the throbbing to cease. Luckily, within a few seconds, it did just that. Loki swallowed hard.

 _Maybe it would be best for me not to question these things. At least, not until my deal with Thanos is fulfilled. Then… Then I can go ahead and try to put the pieces together._

 ** _Yes, that would be best._**

* * *

Steve could hear an entire choir of angels singing directly in his ears. Once again, he found himself thankful for the increased durability and healing factor the Super Soldier Serum gave him. Otherwise, he probably would have gone deaf the second Thor's hammer hit his shield.

It didn't take long for Steve to locate Tony and the rouge Asgardian. After all, the flashes from Tony's repulsor blasts and the lighting shooting off Thor's hammer put on quite a light show. As soon as he caught up to them he attempted to break up the fight and diffuse the situation. Obviously, Thor didn't take too kindly to that and attempted to strike him with the hammer. Thinking quick on his feet Steve brought the shield up to protect himself and it did protect him from the blow, however, what he didn't account for was the shield vibrating once struck to a chime that was loud enough to break the sound barrier and level half the forest. Well, that was probably good information to pocket for later.

Slowly, Steve stood up and surveyed the scene. Tony and Thor seemed to be unharmed and were getting to their feet as well. Neither of them made a move towards each other, which was a good sign. Still, just to be clear, Steve directed his gaze at both men.

"Are we done here?" Thor just continued to breathe heavily as he took in the sight of the now destroyed forest. Steve couldn't tell what Tony was thinking behind the mask, but he didn't make any move to attack. Good, they were all on the same page. "Where's Loki?"

Thor's eyes went wide as he turned to look around. Apparently, he'd gotten so caught up in the battle, he forgot to take note of where he left his brother. Steve did his best not to let his aggravation get to him.

"My apologies," the God said. "I lost sight of him once the man of steel grabbed me."

"Uh, that's **Iron Man** to you," Tony corrected. "Or, if we want to be factual, Gold-Titanium Alloy Man, but…"

"You attacked Thor without securing Loki first?" Steve gawked in disbelief.

"Well, technically he's still handcuffed," Tony pointed out. "So, he couldn't have gotten far. Also, he has one of those special S.H.I.E.L.D. tracker bracelets on, so it shouldn't be that hard to find him."

"What if he managed to get both of those things off?" Steve asked. He could clearly imagine the look Tony was giving him right now.

"Could **you** get the tracker bracelet off?" Steve cringed at the memory of having to wear one of those while he went out with Tony the previous year. He hated it. It felt like S.H.I.E.L.D. had eyes on him everywhere they went. The only reason why he didn't try to rip the thing off his wrist was that he was afraid all S.H.I.E.L.D. would swoop down on them and ruin their night. However, Loki would be hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. regardless of whether he had the bracelet on or not. He had nothing to lose trying to rip the bracelet off and when people had nothing to lose they would do anything to get away from those pursuing them. Steve, however, remained silent and Tony took that to mean he had no point to argue and continued.

"JARVIS," he said addressing his suit's AI. Thor looked confused for a second as he looked around for the mysteriously invisible fourth person. "do you have a bead on our little attempted supreme overlord?" Steve couldn't hear what JARVIS was saying as Tony only had him wired to access the internal speakers, not the external ones. However, whatever he said clearly shocked Tony. "What? Are you serious?"

"What's wrong?" Steve asked.

"Uh, JARVIS says he's ten feet in front of us and two-hundred fifty feet up." Thor and Steve exchanged puzzled glances before turning to look up at the cliffside behind them. Clear as day, Loki sat atop the cliff and even gave them a little wave. Steve's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Alright," he said. "Now I really don't like this. Why didn't he run? He had plenty of opportunities to do so."

"I must admit, I too am puzzled by Loki's actions," Thor said. "What kind of game is he playing?"

"As much as I'd like to stand here and speculate about what's going on in that over-zealous nutjob's head, our ride's here." Tony's announcement was immediately followed by the Quinjet swooping by overhead and coming to land near where Loki was sitting. Glancing around, Steve tried to find some sort of path or clearing that led up to the top of the cliff. He couldn't see one.

"So, how are we supposed to get up there?" As soon as Steve turned to face Thor and Tony, he got his answer. The Norse God and the man with jet repulsors in his shoes had already made it to the top of the cliff and didn't even offer to give him a lift, of course. Steve sighed and looked the cliff up and down.

 _Two-hundred fifty feet?_ he thought. _Not that bad._ With that, he sucked it up and began to climb.

* * *

It took Steve all of twenty minutes to reach the top of the mountain. He would have gone faster, but the cliff was incredibly steep and unstable. One wrong move and he'd be sent tumbling down the cliff and forced to start all over again, and while he had superhuman healing, the idea of falling down a rocky incline didn't sound all that appealing to Steve, so he took it slow.

When he did make it all the way up, the agent that was piloting the plane was finishing repairs to the rear hatch doors. Tony was working on patching up some of the parts of the armor that were damaged in his fight with Thor. Loki was strapped down to his seat and additionally restrained to the spot with bungee cables. Despite that, he seemed absolutely content with the situation, which once again unnerved Steve. Thor was standing up front, talking to Natasha.

"So, this vessel is neither space-worthy," Steve heard Thor say as he stepped aboard the jet. "Nor is it one of Earth's avian species?"

"Nope," Natasha said, popping the "p." "This thing's a hundred percent man-made."

"But it is not capable of going into space," Thor restated. "Why construct a large airship meant to carry a number of people across great distances and not make space travel an option?"

"Because people generally can't go into space." Natasha looked like she was explaining this for the thousandth time. "We haven't really explored it that much. Plus, it's incredibly expensive just to make one plane able to go to space…"

"I still don't see a point," Thor said. "Why construct such a vessel when you can easily get a bird to take you where you need to go."

"Uh…"

"Birds aren't big enough to ride here," Tony looked up from what he was doing and chimed in.

"Not true," Thor said. "Jane told me that you have a species called 'ostrich' which she supposed one could ride if they truly desired." Loki made an audible noise of disgust at the mention of Jane's name.

"Well, people generally don't," Natasha said.

"Ah," Thor said. "I understand now. So, since the people of Earth lack a dedicated avian species to ride, they construct these metal sky birds to take them from one destination to another."

"Sure," Natasha said. "We'll go with that."

Thor seemed to accept this answer, nodded, and took a seat next to his brother, who muttered something about him being a complete imbecile. Steve took a moment to process the conversation he just witnessed and decide whether this was reality. (He concluded that it was, just for the simple fact that the whole thing was too strange for anyone to make up.) Then, he noticed that the seat next to Tony wasn't taken, so he sat right down.

"So, thanks for the lift back there," he said sarcastically. "Really was a huge favor. Saved me a lot of trouble." Tony didn't even look over at him.

"That's funny," he said. "I thought we weren't friends." Steve squeezed his eyes shut. Yes, he probably deserved that.

"Listen, Tony…"

"You know what, save it," Tony said. "We don't have time for bullshit excuses. Once we figure this out, we can go our separate ways. ¿Comprende?"

Steve nodded silently, and Tony turned back to what he was doing. Steve knew he should say something to Tony, but at the same time Steve was aware that what Tony said was true; time was of the essence. They could deal with their petty problems once they found the Tesseract, but if Tony honestly thought that they were going to go their separate ways, well, he was terribly mistaken.

Steve's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of mechanical **whirs** and loud, metallic **clangs**.

"The hatch is fixed," the agent said as he walked by. "Let's get this show on the road." The agent took a seat next to Natasha and the two of them started flipping switches and pressing buttons left and right.

"Alright," Natasha said. "This is now a non-stop flight back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Tactical HQ. From now on if you jump out of the plane, no one's coming back for you. Any questions?" No one spoke up. "Good. You boys might want to strap in. We have no time to lose and this ride is going to get bumpy."

"Right ho!" Thor lifted Mjolnir and pointed the hammer towards the cockpit. "Set forth, metal sky bird and bring us nothing but safe tidings on our journey to this S.H.I.E.L.D." Thor set his hammer down rather gently on the seat next to him. Loki rolled his eyes at his brother while everyone else just stared.

"Uh, thank you, Thor," Natasha said, not sure how else to respond.

"You are most welcome, Lady Natasha." With that, the plane took off without a hitch and had lapsed into silence.

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

By the time Tony made his way to the bridge, the rest of Fury's rag-tag team of misfits had already gathered in the bridge; Natasha, Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner, and Steve… Tony tried his best to keep his frustration with Steve off his mind, but it was rather hard to do that when he was looking right at the man. Luckily, Bruce was discussing what Loki and his cohorts were up to with the cube, so it was easy for him to distract himself with something more important.

"…Iridium," he heard Bruce say as he walked into the room. "What do they need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony quickly cut in before turning back to Coulson to quickly finish the conversation he was having with him. "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive!" Tony's eyes flicked over to Steve for half a second after he said that last part, and he immediately mentally chastised himself for it. Coulson then went off to take his place where he was supposed to be and Tony continued explaining the purpose of the iridium to the rest of the team. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." As he passed by Thor, he patted the Thunder God's bicep with the back of his hand. "No hard feelings, Point Break," he said. "You've got a mean swing." His eyes once again flicked over to Steve for half a second. The other man had seemingly no reaction. "Also," Tony continued. "it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." He came to a stop when he reached Fury's command post. "Uh, raise the mizzenmast, jib the topsails," he ordered the agents around him, who just gave him weird looks. Looking across at the agents' computers, he quickly noticed that one person didn't have his screen on what he was supposed to. "That man is playing _Galliga_!" He pointed at the person in question. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Then, he turned his attention back to Fury's command post, covering one eye. He quickly realized that the setup probably wasn't entirely accessible for a man with only one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," said Commander Hill, the first person to get a word in edgewise.

"Sounds exhausting," Tony commented. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density."

When he was certain no one was paying attention to what his hands were doing, Tony quickly stuck a device on the underside of one of the holographic displays. The device was small and hexagonal-shaped, so anyone who just gave the machine a passing glance would just think it was your average, everyday bolt and not question it. It would give Tony the backdoor he needed to break into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database.

"Something to kick-start the cube," he finished saying.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill said.

"Last night," Tony snarked back. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

 _Ah, he speaks!_ Tony was still somewhat concerned that Steve sounded somewhat cold and annoyed, but at least he got something out of him. Granted, Tony was the one who told Steve not to speak to him on the Quinjet, but suddenly, he just got really frustrated with the fact that Steve was seemingly giving him the silent treatment. He had no idea why he just felt all his stress and anger spike at the sight of him. Well, at the sight of everyone, really, but mostly just Steve.

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin, just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce pointed out, saving Tony from continuing down that road any further.

"Unless," Tony said. "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well," Bruce said. "If he could do that then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally," Tony said. "Someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Tony couldn't help but feel satisfied with himself upon hearing that question as he reached out to shake Bruce's hand.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said, and it was. He had heard about the other scientist a lot throughout the years – both before and after his little Gamma Radiation accident. He was and still is a brilliant man and Tony was all too happy to help get General Ross off his tail and prevent the Abomination from getting placed on the Avengers after the Harlem incident the previous year. Getting to meet the man was somewhat of an honor, but Tony being Tony, he still had to give Bruce at least a little bit of a hard time. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled, and I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster." Bruce's face fell a little bit when he got to the second part.

"Thanks," was all he could say in response.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube," Fury said as he stepped into the room. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his," Steve said. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"I don't know about that," Fury said. "But it is powered by the Cube and I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor questioned. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve said a little too eagerly. Tony rolled his eyes. "I understood that reference." Steve looked over at Tony, who just gave him somewhat of an annoyed look.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony turned to Bruce and asked.

"This way, sir." Bruce gestured in the direction of the lab and Tony followed his lead, not even sparing a glance at Steve as he walked by.

* * *

 **Thanks to Balletgrl046 for leaving a comment and theskullycat and the 3 other guests that left kudos on AO3! It really means a lot!**

 **So, this is the last day of 2018. I have to say, I'm actually really proud of what I've accomplished this year. I mean, technically IRL all I did was push people away and increase my social isolation which probably isn't a good thing, especially when you consider that I have Aspergers and that's essentially allowing my disability to rule my life, but the stuff I did on this site was great! I mean, I finished and published FIVE STORIES! FIVE STORIES! That's incredible to me. Granted, one was a bonus deleted scenes and alternate takes thing for another fic and the other was a one-shot, but FIVE STORIES guys! That's amazing!**

 **Also, in interesting MCU news, Marvel has confirmed that Loki was brainwashed during the events of _the Avengers_. I wish this came out sooner (like maybe four months ago when I was writing this fic so I could have cut Loki a little more slack) but I'll take what I can get. Thanks for the belated birthday/Christmas present Marvel! Can't wait to see what's coming up in 2019!**

 **Remember kids, the best part of any flight is when the pilot screams "bend to my will metal sky bird and bring us into the big blueness!" while the passengers chant "Sky bird! Sky bird! Sky bird!"**

* * *

 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 12/31/18**


	8. If It Walks Like a Duck

**Happy New Year!**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

Steve just wanted to get an update on the search for the Tesseract, nothing more, nothing less. Go in, ask Tony one question, and get out before the other man became annoyed by his mere presence once again, or vice versa. However, when he approached the door to the lab and saw through the window that Tony was poking Bruce with a metal stick, Steve couldn't let that go by without saying something.

"Hey!" Steve called out as he walked in the room. "Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out," Tony quipped while Bruce tried to get back to work. Tony turned his attention back to the other scientist. "You really have got a lid on it, have you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, a huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve could feel his annoyance rising like someone had placed a chalkboard on his back and started running nails down it. He'd been feeling it ever since he ran into Tony in Germany, but it got better once he wasn't in the other man's presence. He couldn't explain it. Just a week before he couldn't look at Tony without breaking into a wide smile. Now the sight of him made him want to punch him out. It made no sense. Still, he just needed to get through this conversation, get the information he needed, and figure this all out for himself later. Preferably when they weren't at the precipice of a world-ending disaster. Tony couldn't make things that easy, though.

"Funny things are," Tony said. Steve could feel a vein somewhere in his forehead twitch.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny." He was quick to add a "no offense, Doc," once he realized that Bruce was still in the room.

"It's alright," Bruce assured. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"You're tip-toeing, big man," Tony remarked. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve said.

"Oh, there it is again," Tony said. "'Mr. Stark.' You know, I don't know how they did things in the forties, but people don't generally refer to people they text daily and spent an entire weekend with by their last names." Tony smirked, Steve tried to keep his expression neutral. "Besides, I think this problem is a little too big to take my attention away from. Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve said plainly.

"He's a spy," Tony said. " **Captain** , he's **the** spy. His secrets have secrets." He then reached into the bag of blueberries he was holding and popped a few in his mouth. "It's bothering him, too." He said with a full mouth while gesturing over to Bruce.

"Uh…" Bruce didn't even look up from his computer, clearly not wanting to get involved. "I just want to finish my work here and…"

"Doctor?" Steve questioned. Bruce sighed reluctantly and removed his glasses.

"'A warm light for all mankind,'" he quoted. "Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it," Steve said.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Bruce turned to Tony and said. Tony held out the bag of blueberries for Bruce to take a few. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"Stark tower?" Steve questioned. "That big, ugly…" Tony shot Steve a look. "Building in New York?" That was the best save he could come up with.

"No, be completely honest," Tony said. "Don't hold back. No matter what you say, though, remember that the Pan-Am/MetLife center was much worse."

"I don't know what that is." Steve heard Tony mutter "of course you don't" under his breath. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that.

"It's powered by an arc reactor," Bruce explained like he didn't already know. "A self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Tony said. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Alarm bells chimed loudly in Steve's head.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Did you just say…"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony cut him off. "In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Steve ignored the offer.

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around," he remarked.

"Not only them." Steve gave Tony a warning look. "Look, an intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki is trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed." He felt like he was telling himself that more than he was Tony. "We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following's not really my style," Tony remarked. "Nor is it really yours Mr. Sneaks-Across-Enemy-Lines-Against-Orders-to-Save-His-Best-Friend."

"Howard tell you that story?" Steve asked.

"Peggy," Tony said. "Howard, like most everyone else, brushed over anything that didn't make you seem like a good ol' all-American boy."

"Well, maybe I learned from that." Tony shot him a look that said "really?" "Maybe you should, too." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Of the people in this room," he said. "Which one is A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?" Alright, now Steve could feel his blood boil. If Bruce didn't speak up right at that second, he probably would have said something to Tony that he would have regretted.

"Steve," Bruce said. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Steve looked at Bruce and back at Tony. All he could think about was how angry he was at Tony, and now some of that anger was starting to spill over on to Bruce, just for the simple difference in opinion. Steve knew that he had to step back from the situation before it could escalate any further.

"Just find the cube," he said dismissively before leaving the room.

As soon as he was out the door, Steve immediately felt more relaxed. Once again, another emotional reaction he couldn't explain. He remembered once when he was small – maybe three, four years old – there was an exhaust leak in his and his mother's apartment and it was almost too late before his mother realized what was wrong, opened windows, and got them both outside. He couldn't remember any of the whys and hows of what happened (he supposed he never learned the cause seeing as the serum gave him a retroactively eidetic memory) but he remembered clearly the feeling of relief once he got outside and started breathing clean air. Stepping out of that room was a lot like that, only instead of carbon monoxide, it was anger and tension poisoning that room. He could still feel it somewhat once he stepped outside, it was a lot less than what he was feeling in the moment. Steve slowly took several deep breaths.

Taking a short glance back at the lab, Steve allowed himself a moment to stop and think. As much as he didn't like it, Tony and Bruce had a point; S.H.I.E.L.D. was hiding something. Exactly what, he couldn't be sure, but there was only one way to find out. With that, Steve set off down the ship's corridor, away from the bridge. With no idea what he was looking for, he just kept his eyes peeled, looking for anything out of place or suspicious.

* * *

"Wow," Tony said once Steve left. "Sometimes I can't help but think 'Really? That's the guy my dad never shut up about?'" Honestly, Tony truly had that thought a few times, but it was never filled with as much agitation as he was feeling at that moment. He wasn't sure why he felt that way, but sleep deprivation probably had something to do with it.

"You've met him before?" Tony turned to look back at Bruce. "I don't mean to pry but the way you guys were talking…"

"Yeah," Tony said. "I met him last year and I've spent time with him since. Doesn't always live up to the legend…"

 _…But that might be a good thing._ Tony was thankful that he didn't add that and mentally slapped the thought away. _Time and a place, Tony!_ Right, he had to keep his eyes on the prize. Whatever this newfound tension he had with Steve was, he could focus on it later. Find the Tesseract, stop S.H.I.E.L.D. from doing whatever stupid thing they were doing now, then he could focus on his screwed up emotional state.

However, his screwed up emotional state wasn't helped when he looked up and saw Bruce raising an eyebrow at him.

"By spent some time…?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Banner," Tony said. "Despite what the media might have you think, I don't sleep with everything with a pulse."

"Ah, that wasn't what I was implying," Bruce said. "Or at least not that salacious, but that's good to know." Tony shot Bruce a look that said not to even try to continue the conversation from there, and the other scientist obliged. Tony was thankful for that. Not for his sake, but for Steve's. Instead, Bruce went to one of the holographic screens and started hitting buttons. "The guy's not wrong about Loki, though. He does have the jump on us."

"What he's got," Tony said as he crossed the room and stepped in front of another monitor. "Is an Acme dynamite kit. It's going to blow up in his face, and I'm going to be there when it does."

"Yeah," Bruce said. "And I'll read all about it."

"Uh-huh," Tony said. "Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us." Bruce gave a small, humorless laugh.

"You see," he said. "I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare." Tony felt a pang of sympathy rush through him. He didn't know what Bruce's exact situation was like, but he could understand having your whole life changed by a single event.

"I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," he said.

"This stops it." He tapped his chest where the faint glow of the Arc Reactor showed through his shirt. "This little circle of light, it's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

"But you can control it," Bruce pointed out.

"Because I learned how," Tony said.

"It's different," Bruce dismissed as he reached up to get a better look at one of the modules on the screen. Tony brushed all the modules to the side, forcing Bruce to look right at him.

"Hey," he said. "I read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure should have killed you."

"So, you're saying that the Hulk…" Bruce sort of scoffed to himself. "The Other Guy saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" Tony didn't even flinch as he maintained eye contact with Bruce.

"Guess we'll find out," he said before moving to look at a screen on the other side of the room.

"You may not enjoy that," Bruce remarked.

"And you just might," Tony quipped back.

* * *

Loki stood dumbfounded in his cell. He hadn't foreseen this. The Tesseract hadn't shown him this. Although, he had to applaud the Black Widow. It took a lot of skill to trick a trickster, and somehow she managed to succeed in doing it.

 _Well, maybe it's not **that** hard._ The feeling of fire flowing through his brain quickly washed away that thought before he could focus on it. Instead, he focused on correcting this small error. Reaching out with his magic, he felt for the psychic energy the gem in his scepter gave off. Finally finding it, he altered it so it would release double the amount of energy over a larger radius. He then smirked to himself. Even if the Black Widow was able to warn them of his intentions, it was too late to stop it now.

* * *

Tony didn't look at his phone right away when the little chime indicating he had received a text message went off. He was busy trying to get around S.H.I.E.L.D.'s firewalls. When he did finally get a chance to look at it several minutes later, he was needlessly surprised by the contents of the message.

Vantage Point: 911 Suss POI ST 

The only acronym Tony understood in there was 911, and he guessed ST stood for Stark Tower. He was just about to hit the call button on the phone when suddenly Lara followed up with another text.

Vantage Point: Never mind. Wallace has it under control. ALL CLEAR.

Tony let out a breath of relief. Whatever happened, it had already been taken care of. It could have been worse. The tower could have suddenly knocked out power to all of Manhattan as he feared. This was good. He could relax.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury demanded as he walked into the lab. Tony silently sighed. Relaxation time over.

"Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony said.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury said.

"We are," Bruce assured. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have a location within half a mile."

"Yeah," Tony said. "Then you get your Cube back. No muss, no fuss." Suddenly the holographic screen pinged, and a file opened in front of them. "What is Phase Two?" Tony asked as he skimmed the information coming up on the screen. His attention was taken away from the screen when he heard a loud metal **clang!** Looking up, he saw that Steve had returned and set some type of high-tech gun down on one of the tables.

"Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons," he announced. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers," Fury said, clearly none too pleased. "We gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making…"

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony said turning the holographic screen around to reveal a schematic that was in the Phase Two file. It very clearly a weapon that looked very similar to the Hydra gun Steve had set down on the table. "What were you lying?" Fury's posture straightened, and his one eye was wide as he looked at the schematic.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said. "The world hasn't changed a bit."

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha as she and Thor walked into the room. She took a step closer to Bruce.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha countered. Bruce gave a dismissive laugh.

"I was in Calcutta," he said. "I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha said.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce asked.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha said.

"Yes," Bruce said. "And I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury finally relented, not taking his eyes off Bruce as he pointed at Thor.

"Me?" The Thunder God questioned.

"Last year," Fury said. "Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury countered. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve questioned.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drove Loki to it," Thor pointed out. "And his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"Your forced our hand." Fury said. "We had to come up with…"

"A nuclear deterrent," Tony finished for him. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Tony could feel his entire body clench at that remark. That was a low blow and Fury knew it. He had moved past that. In the past two years, he and Pepper worked tirelessly to change the company's direction from arms manufacturing to clean energy. Stark Tower was a monument to all of that. How dare he! However, it was only made worse when Steve spoke up.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons," he said. "Stark would be neck-deep…"

"Wait, wait, hold on." Tony was glad he got Steve's attention before he could finish that. "How is this now about me?" He heard the **chime** of his cell phone, but he ignored it. Whatever non-issue Lara had to bother him with now could wait.

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "Isn't everything?" If Thor didn't speak up, Tony would have let out all his building rage against Steve right then and there.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Fury whipped his head around.

"Excuse me," he said. "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Not caring to listen to whatever conversation was happening there, Tony turned back to Steve.

"Hey," he said. "Why not instead of making this about me, why don't we make this about you? After all, you're the one who's been treating me like a stranger."

"What happened to not talk about it?" Steve balked.

"I changed my mind," Tony snapped back. "You know, it's something you seem to do a lot."

"Not as much as you," Steve countered. "Last week for example…"

"What about last week?" Steve went white as he realized where he had been going with that thought. "That's right, you're not going to say it. Not in front of all these people." Tony gestured to Fury, Natasha, and Thor, who were too busy with their own argument to take notice of what they were saying. "What are you so afraid of, Steve?"

"You know what I'm afraid of," Steve said.

"I think I know what you're afraid of," Tony said. "But that doesn't make sense because there's no way you could feel like that."

"Feel like what?" Steve questioned.

"If you have to ask that, then I already know how you feel." Steve let out a frustrated sigh.

"Stark, I swear to God if you don't tell me what the hell you mean…"

"Threat!" Tony suddenly burst out with. "Threat! I feel threatened!"

"I wasn't threatening physical harm!" Tony knew that, but he honestly just wanted to avoid the conversation. He already knew how it was going to end and he just couldn't take the heartbreak. Not right now.

 **Chime!**

 _God damn it, Conroy!_ Tony didn't even bother to look at the message before switching the phone to silent. When he looked back up Thor was making some point to Fury.

"You speak of control," he said. "Yet you court chaos."

"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Everyone turned to look at Bruce "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury said.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony didn't notice that he had unconsciously put a hand on Steve's shoulder until the other man was batting it away.

"You know damn well why," Steve snapped. "Back off!"

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me." Despite how angry he was, Tony had to admit that he was starting to get a little bit turned on. He found his eyes starting to scan Steve's body…

 _Damn it, he doesn't want you! Knock it off, Stark!_ Steve's response, however, didn't do anything to help him rid himself of dirty thoughts.

"Yeah," he said. "Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," he listed off.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Tony wanted to point out that those guys were dead guys, but he couldn't be that petty. Not unless he was provoked. "I've seen the footage. Hell, I've seen you in action myself. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Steve laughed, looked at everyone else, then back at Tony.

"Always a way out," he said. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony questioned. "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle." Steve's face remained impassive.

"Put on the suit," he said. "Let's go a few rounds." Once again, dirty thoughts started outweighing Tony's anger, but he was able to keep in check. He kept his eyes locked on Steve, challenging him to do something about it. He was only distracted by Thor's sudden burst of laughter.

"You people are so petty," the Blonde God remarked. "And tiny." That made Tony take notice of something he hadn't before. Everything looked like it was being filtered through a wide angled lens and everything sounded much sharper, louder, then it was supposed to. He shut his eyes in hopes that it would bring everything back into proper focus. Damn sleep deprivation.

"Yeah, this is a team," Tony heard Bruce scoff.

"Agent Romanoff," Fury said. "Would you mind escorting Dr. Banner back to his…"

"Where?" Bruce demanded to know. "You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case…"

"In case you needed to kill me," Bruce finished for Fury. "But you can't. I know, I tried." Everyone stared at Bruce in shock. Tony felt his heart sink a little at that admission, reminding him of dark places. "I got low," Bruce explained. "I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." He then turned to look at Natasha. "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?" Both Fury and Natasha put their hands on their weapons.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said in a calm, yet commanding voice. "Put down the scepter." Bruce looked down at his left hand to see that his hand to see he had a tight grip around the scepter's center of gravity. His eyes went wide like he was surprised; he didn't remember taking the scepter.

Bruce looked like he was going to say something in his own defense, but they all had their attention diverted when a beeping noise came from one of the computers. The Tesseract had been located.

"Got it," Tony announced. Bruce put the scepter back down.

"Sorry kids," he said as he went over to one of the screens. "You don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I could get there fastest," Tony said without even looking at where the Cube had been located.

"You're not going alone." Steve tried to grab Tony's arm, but Tony batted it away.

"You're gonna stop me?" Tony challenged.

"Put on the suit," Steve said again. "Let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony said that, but he didn't mean that. In fact, he was more likely to push Steve up against the wall, kiss him until he couldn't breathe, and start ripping his clothes off.

"Put on the suit." Tony could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, urging him to surge forward. However, before he could do anything, the ship suddenly and violently lurched from side to side.

Tony felt Steve grab him and try to force him to the ground. In the distance, he could hear something that sounded like an explosion. Then there was another one, much closer. He could feel the heat from the blast and he and Steve were even thrown a few feet themselves. Glass broke. Alarms blared. Smoke filled the air. What on Earth just happened? As soon as the shaking stopped, Tony sat up, his eyes immediately locking on to Steve's.

"Put on the suit." This time, his voice was much more horse and more confused than it was challenging.

"Yeah," Tony agreed as he got up off the ground. As he pulled himself up, he could feel Steve put his hand on his lower back, probably to help steady him as he got up. This time Tony didn't brush off the touch or push him away, but he still tried to ignore how tight the simple touch made his chest. They had jobs to do, after all.

* * *

 **Thank you to the two guests who left kudos on AO3! You guys rock!**

 **I hope everyone's having a happy and safe New Year so far! Personally, I'm not feeling too great at the moment, so I'm going to keep this A/N short, but thank you for sticking with me through 2018 and I hope you love what's to come in 2019!**

 **Remember kids, if it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, and it fucks like a duck... It's probably a damn duck!**

* * *

 **Originally posted to FFN on 1/1/19**


	9. Penny Drops

**I'm still sick. I hate my body. That's all I'm going to say. Let's do this.**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

"Stark!" Steve tried to look around for Tony, but he found himself distracted by the massive amount of damage that the explosion had done to the engine turbine. The hull had been completely torn off, making it as clear as day how far of a drop it was to the ground. Steve could have sworn that he was higher up than he was when he crashed the plane into the Arctic. "Stark, I'm here!" He tried to call into the coms again.

"Good," he heard Tony's voice say in his ear. Within seconds the armor whooshed right past Steve as Tony went to get a better look at the engine. "Let's see what we've got." What they got clearly wasn't good. After all, the thing was on fire. However, Tony could see more than that. He could see a way to fix it, at least that's what Steve could gather from the large amount of technobabble Tony dropped on him. He then watched as Tony tried to push something back into place. "I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position."

Steve looked over to where Tony was pointing. He just had to jump up and across one beam two grates to get there. Easy enough. Steve got there quickly and spotted a panel inside of a doorway that appeared to pull out. Doing so, he discovered that it was filled with circuitry and wires. He had a pretty good feeling that this was what he was looking for.

"What does it look like in there?" he heard Tony ask.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity." What else did Tony expect him to tell him?

"Well, you're not wrong," Tony commented. "And if you know that you already know more about this crap than my assistant, so congratulations."

"What do you want me to do?" He expected Tony to sigh in annoyance, but he was pleasantly surprised when instead, he just got right down to business.

"Are there any red lights on in the panel?"

"Yes," Steve answered quickly. "There are a bunch of plugs with red lights around their bases."

"And those plugs are going into a silver box in the center?"

"Yes."

"How many of them are red?"

"All of them."

"Shit," Tony cursed. "Worse than I thought. Do you see any wires that look frayed or severed?"

"No," Steve said. "At least, not that I can see."

"Alright," Tony said. "Now, apparently I have to ask this – are you wearing gloves?"

"Yes?" Steve raised an eyebrow at the strange question.

"Okay, all I need you to do is reset the circuits," Tony explained. "I think when the explosion happened there was a huge power surge and the whole thing just overloaded. All you need to do is pull the switches above the plugs towards the center of the box on both sides. That sound easy enough?"

"Roger that," Steve confirmed. Over the coms, he could hear Tony's repulsors blasting and metal breaking apart. He knew Tony knew what he was doing, but he couldn't help but get concerned.

Steve did as he was told and pulled all the switches on each side towards the center. He watched as the lights on the plugs went out, then flickered back on, now glowing green. Once he could see that there were no problems with any of the plugs, he slid the panel back into the wall.

"Okay, the relays are intact," he said. "What's our next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump," Tony explained. I'm going to have to get in there and push."

"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded," Steve pointed out.

"That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that could…"

"Speak English!" Once again, Tony displayed no audible sign of annoyance.

"You see that red lever?" Steve looked to his right and spotted it a few feet away. He'd have to navigate a few more broken platforms, but once again it'd be easy enough to get over there. "It will slow down the rotors long enough for me to get out. Stand by it. Wait for my word." Steve nodded and jumped across the first platform.

* * *

Natasha sat on the floor of the hallway she had been running down while being pursued by the Hulk. Literally, thank God that Thor was able to intervene. Otherwise, she probably would have had her brains smashed out. She had one leg – the one that had been trapped under the debris of the explosion – pulled close to her and she was shaking. That shocked her. **She** was **shaking**. It took a lot to scare her. Apparently nearly getting pulverized by a giant green rage monster could do it.

She tried to regain her composure. She needed to get up and help people. However, it was only when the ship started tilting sideways that she was able to start coming to her senses. Fury's words in her ear did the rest of the job.

"It's Barton," Fury said. "He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy." Natasha's hand went to her earpiece.

"This is Agent Romanoff," she said slowly in a deep, hoarse voice, but a very self-assured one none the less. "I copy." She forced herself to her feet and sprinted as fast as she could down the hall. This was the one chance to save Clint – Laura's husband, Cooper and Lila's father, her best friend – she wasn't going to let it slip by and she wasn't going to give up on him. After all, he never gave up on her.

* * *

Loki spotted Thor about to turn the corner. He smirked. This never stopped being funny. Before Thor could turn to investigate the cell, Loki set up an illusion of himself to look like he had just broken. He had already been out for quite several minutes. The only thing he had left to do was take Thor out of the picture. Luckily, the simple illusion did the trick. Thor charged forward at the Loki that was stepping out of the cell, passing right through him and landing on his face. The real Loki hit the button to shut the door. Meanwhile, he sent a second illusion to stand in front of the door to the cell.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" he had his illusion ask.

* * *

Natasha moved as swiftly and silently as she could. She could tell Clint had noticed her presence a while ago but waited until she was right behind him to whip around, an arrow positioned to fly from his bow. Natasha had anticipated this, grabbing ahold of the bow and stepping out of the way as he fired. She tried to disarm him by twisting the bow out of his grip, but that only earned her a punch to the stomach.

Recovering quickly, Natasha was able to dodge the next few punches Clint threw at her and spun around to land a kick directly to his hip. Clint fell back while Natasha used the opportunity to slip under the metal grating of the catwalk and spring back up behind him, managing to get another good kick in.

Clint took several steps back and aimed another arrow at Natasha, who once again dodged. He then tried getting to higher ground by jumping up between the two sets of beams that lofted above them, only to immediately jump back down and try striking Natasha again. He missed. He tried to pull out his bow to fire at her, but Natasha stopped him by grabbing ahold of the string. She held on tightly as he tried to shake her off, pulling her forward and back. Eventually, Clint managed to pin Natasha against one of the safety railings. She used this to her advantage and struck him as hard as she could. He let go of the bow and Natasha spun around to get away.

Natasha allowed herself to be thankful for a second that she managed to disarm him before Clint pulled out one of the knives from his leg holster. She had been anticipating that and readied herself to go on the defense again.

 _Don't worry, Clint,_ she thought to herself. _I'll get you out of this._

* * *

Thor tried for what seemed like the eighty-seventh time in the past two minutes to smash Mjolnir through the glass. Once again it didn't work. Loki couldn't help but be amused by that. What was that mortal saying? "Insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?" Well, that certainly fit Thor. However, apparently, Thor had managed to weaken the glass to the point where it finally cracked. The force of the hit also caused one of the metal clamps holding the cage in place to come off. There were still several more clamps located around the glass prison, so thankfully the whole thing wouldn't come apart just yet. Loki let out a laugh.

"The humans think us immortal," his illusion remarked as it walked closer to one of the holographic panels. "Should we test that?" He had the illusion reach for the release button before becoming distracted by the sound of one of the guards he had set up falling unconscious to the ground.

"Move away please." Loki smirked. There was the backup he had been expecting. He had the illusion slowly back away. "You like this?" The agent – Coulson was what the Hawkeye identified him as – stepped closer to the illusion, holding a large gun. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does." Coulson hit a button on the side of the gun. An orange light started emitting from it and it hummed to life.

Right then the real Loki struck. He came up behind Coulson, stabbing him in the back. The blade of his scepter penetrated him so deeply that it came out through the other side of his chest, covered in blood.

"No!" Thor screamed from inside the cell. Loki pulled the scepter out of Coulson's torso, allowing the man to fall to the ground. The illusionary image disappeared as Loki strode over to the control panel. His brother gave him a look of utter disgust and disdain. Loki didn't let that phase him as he hit the button to open the airlock and drop the cage thousands of feet to the ground.

 _I would apologize, brother,_ Loki thought. _But this is for the good of Asgard; the good of both of us._

* * *

Clint tried to punch Natasha in the face, but she blocked him with her arm. When he tried to take another strike at her, she grabbed his arm and kneed him in the stomach. When he started going down she held on tightly to his arm straining it to the point where it could dislocate. Natasha didn't care if it did or not if she could get him to stop without killing him. They could handle any unintended consequences later.

To escape, Clint tossed his knife in the air and used the distraction to try and punch Natasha again. She didn't fall for it and kept a tight hold on his arm. Clint quickly caught the knife in his free hand and charged forward, once again attempting to shake Natasha off. No matter what, Natasha wouldn't let go. Clint eventually managed to pin Natasha against the railing again. Both were straining to overpower the other. Clint had his knife poised to dive into Natasha's neck. She closed her eyes as she tried to force his hand away. Seeing that wasn't going to work out for her, she saw that the skin of his forearm was exposed, so she bit down on it, hard.

He let out a pained yell and tried to force her to the ground, but Natasha flipped over his arm and forced his head to collide with the railing. Clint let out a pained grunt and tried to get to his feet. He looked at her with confused, crystal blue eyes.

"Natasha?" he said. Whatever he was playing at, she didn't want to find out. She hit him hard across the temple, causing him to collapse to the floor, unconscious.

* * *

Loki flipped the cover to the release button shut and started to walk away.

"You're going to lose." Loki turned to look at the broken man. Blood stained his shirt and trickled from his mouth. He couldn't help but laugh at the notion.

"Am I?" he said.

"It's in your nature," Coulson said.

"Hmm," Loki scoffed. "Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction." Loki's face fell.

 _He's quite perceptive._ This time Loki was thankful for the screeching noise that took the thought away.

 ** _You do not lack conviction. You will serve Thanos or die doing it. Understood?_** Yeah, he understood.

"I don't think I…" Before Loki could finish that sentence, he found himself blown into the next room. Slowly, he got up off the ground and brushed some of the dust off. His entire chest and stomach hurt from that. Not willing to risk getting hit with another one of those blasts, Loki slowly started making his way to where his extraction team would be waiting for him.

* * *

Steve held on to the wire he had grabbed onto for dear life. While waiting for Tony to give him the go-ahead and hit the lever, a group of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that had been turned by Loki ambushed him and during the struggle, he ended up getting knocked off the ship. Fortunately, at the last second, he managed to grab onto a wire dangling from the ship. He tried to use it to pull himself back up to safety but was finding it difficult given how thin and smooth the wire's surface was. Over the coms, he could hear Tony straining as he tried to get the turbines up to speed. He tried to hurry. If he didn't get there in time…

"Cap, hit the lever."

 _Crap._

"I need a minute here!" he shouted into the coms. He was so close, just a few more feet…

"Lever, now!" Steve felt a horrible feeling roll through his gut. Reaching forward, his hand hit the metal of the grated platforms and pulled himself up, onto it. As he did, bullets started to ping as they bounced off the wall beside him. One of the agents in tactical gear was shooting at him with an automatic weapon. At the same time, he could hear Tony give a little "uh-oh" before the coms were filled with loud **clangs** , pained groans, and at least one cry for help. Looking up, Steve could see the lever just above him. He reached up and pulled it down as fast as he could.

Tony's cries stopped after that, but Steve wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. He couldn't focus on that right now. He was still being shot at, after all. Slowly, Steve tried as best as he could to stand up without catching a bullet to the head.

Without warning, though, he saw a flash of red go by and the shooting came to a halt. Steve rushed to his feet and made his way down to the doorway where the shooter had taken up his position. Looking inside, he saw the shooter knocked unconscious on the ground and Tony lying motionless a few feet away. The lights in the helmet's eyes had flickered out.

"Tony!" Steve started to rush to Tony's side but stopped short when he saw Tony pulling the helmet off his head.

"So, we're back to a first name basis now, huh?" Tony pushed himself to sit up. Steve felt like he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. His gaze went down to the floor. "What? Nothing to say to that? You seemed to have plenty to say before."

"I'm sorry," was all Steve could think to say.

"You're 'sorry?'" Tony questioned. "For what? A lot has happened over the past twenty-four hours if you haven't noticed." Steve took a deep breath before looking Tony directly in the eyes.

"Everything," he said. Tony rolled his eyes. "Everything I've done since this whole thing started that hurt you. I'm sorry I canceled our plans last-minute. I'm sorry for getting upset with you for trying to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files – you ended up being right about that. I'm sorry for everything I said back in the lab. The only thing I'm not going to apologize for is stabbing Banner. That was a stupid and risky move and you know it." Tony scoffed.

"You know," he said. "I'd almost believe you, but it's clear you don't know what you need to apologize for."

"What are you…" Then it came back to Steve like a punch in the face.

 _Oh, that._

"Tony, I'm sorry," he said. "I was just trying to keep my distance because…"

"Because of what?" Tony said as he pulled himself up to his feet. "Don't be shy. Share with the class because I really don't understand what I did wrong." Steve felt a sharp pang go through his chest.

"No," he said. "You didn't do anything wrong. I…" He took another deep breath. "I thought I needed to keep my distance around you. I thought if I didn't… If someone noticed how close we were…"

"Oh my God." Tony squeezed his eyes shut and brought a hand to his head. "Please tell me you didn't scare yourself into thinking if people find out you're bi, you'll get thrown into an asylum." Steve didn't have anything to say to that. "Damn it, Steve, how many times do I have to say it before you get it through your thick skull. It's not 1945 anymore. We don't lock up people for being gay and we certainly don't perform lobotomies on anyone. I've been out of the closet for sixteen years and nothing…" Tony seemed to catch himself mid-thought. "Alright, bad stuff has happened, but I've never been **physically harmed** over it, luckily."

"That's the thing," Steve said. "I know my thinking on that is wrong. I know that everything's changed. It's been over a year and I still just can't come to terms with it. Every time I look around I expect to see things a certain way, but I don't. Every time I talk to someone I expect them to say one thing when they come out with something entirely different. I keep trying to reconcile it all in my head, but it just isn't working, and it just gets worse when I'm around you." Tony's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"How do I make it worse?" He questioned. "Do you not like me? Is that it?"

"No," Steve said. "You've done a lot for me and I really appreciate it, it's just…" A hard lump formed in Steve's throat. He couldn't say it.

"What?" Tony looked at him expectantly.

 _Come on, man up, Rogers._ Fighting through his anxiety, Steve started to force the words out of his mouth.

"I have…"

"Agent Coulson is down," Fury's voice came over the coms. Both Steve and Tony's eyes went wide with shock.

"A medical team is on its way to your location," a male agent's voice said.

"They're here," Fury said. "They called it." Steve saw Tony's shoulders slump a little bit before he directed his gaze back down to the ground.

* * *

 **Thank you to mfaerie32 on FFN for the review and the guest on AO3 who left kudos! You're awesome!**

 **Still sick. The four minutes it took to add page breaks did nothing. I'm gonna take a nap now. Bye!**

 **Remember kids, while today it is me, we all shall fall.**

* * *

 **Originally posted to FFN on 1/2/19.**


	10. Let's Go! Stark Tower Defense Play!

**Relax, this is the only OC-centered chapter this time.**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

"It's all over Johnny!" One of the police officers shouted. "Come out with your hands up!"

"Nah," Johnny called out from the shack he was holding up in. "I don't really think I want to!"

"Come on, Johnny!" The officer continued to try to reason with him. "The only way you're getting out of here alive is if you surrender now! The Bureau is willing to make a deal! You give up your suppliers, you get off with twenty-five to life! Considering what you're facing, that's a pretty good deal!"

"Yeah, that is a good deal." The officer's face lifted for just the briefest of moments. "I'd consider it if the Bureau wasn't filled with some of the vilest, low-life, bottom-feeding scum that ever walked the face of the Earth! Tell them they can kiss my ass!" The officer let out a sigh of aggravation.

"I'm warning you, Johnny," he called back. "You ain't leaving us with much of a choice."

"You ain't leaving me with much of a choice here either," Johnny called back. "That's why I'm going to give you to the count of five to get your louse-ridden, yellow-bellied carcasses out of here before I start shredding them apart with bullets."

"Heh," One of the cops scoffed. "He's bluffing."

"Johnny, if you'd just come out and put down the gun…"

"One… Five!" Immediately the sound of machine gun fire erupted from the surround sound speakers. Lara watched as cop after cop was felled by the power of Johnny and his Tommy Gun. She had no idea why Tony had the entire _Angels With Filthy Souls_ trilogy on DVD, but she was grateful for it. Otherwise, she'd have nothing to keep her entertained until he got back.

After showering and taking her nap (which lasted until about three in the morning) Lara wasn't left with much to do. After all, her one and only job were to monitor the building's power levels and call Tony if something went drastically wrong. All she was essentially doing was babysitting his penthouse and as fabulous as that sounded, it was still a very boring job. Though, she should consider that a good thing. Nothing had happened so far and it was looking like this whole ordeal was just going to be smooth sailing over calm seas.

That was until JARVIS had to speak up.

"Miss Conroy," the AI said while automatically lowering the volume of the television. "I'd hate to interrupt, but an agent from S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to gain access to Mr. Stark's private elevator." Lara's brow furrowed.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" she questioned. "Coulson?"

"No," JARVIS said. "I am running facial scans to try and identify the individual, but they are wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform."

"Did Tony send them?" Lara asked.

"No," JARVIS said. "I have tried to inform Mr. Stark of this, but he has not looked at his phone."

"Ugh," Lara groaned as she got up. "Of course, he hasn't. Alright, I'll go see what's going on. Just let me straighten myself out." Just as she reached for the remote, the movie got to the best part. She couldn't help but mouth along.

"How's that deal now, you filthy animal?" With that, Johnny fired one last round into the cop.

* * *

Going down in the elevator, Lara finished tying up her braid. She honestly didn't think this was going to be that big of a deal. Most likely, Tony had forgotten something and had sent someone to get it for him. A simple explanation for a complete non-issue. At least, that's what she thought.

When the elevator came to a stop, Lara was stunned. The doors opened, revealing the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to be trying to rip the control panel for the elevator off the wall.

"Um, excuse me?" The agent instantly halted in his movements. "What the hell are you doing?" Turning to face her, Lara was suddenly taken aback by something about his appearance. He was an African American man, but his eyes were a stunning shade of crystal blue. Lara tried not to stare too much, assuming it to be a genetic anomaly.

"Ma'am," the agent said. "Would you please step aside?"

"No," Lara said. "I work for Mr. Stark and I'm not going to step aside until you identify yourself and state your intentions."

"That wasn't a question," the agent's voice was deep and firm. "Step aside."

"I'm sorry," Lara said. "Were you sent by Mr. Stark or an Agent Coulson? Because unless you were sent by either one of them…" She was cut off by a swift punch to her jaw and she would have fallen back if she didn't already have her hand braced against the elevator door to keep it from shutting. Her other hand flew to her jaw as she slowly looked up. "Wha-" She cut herself off when she saw that he was gearing up to throw another punch. Leaning forward and ducking down, Lara managed to avoid that blow and sent a counterpunch directly to her attacker's stomach. The man briefly gripped his side but seemed unphased as he tried to throw another punch. Lara dodged that one as well and countered by using all her strength to push him back as far as she could. By some miracle, she managed to make it far enough to buy her some time to hit the button to close the elevator doors.

Breathing heavily – mostly from the shock and anxiety of the whole situation – Lara stuck the electronic key Tony had given her into the designated slot and waited for the elevator to lurch upwards. It was only then that she allowed herself to walk over to the far wall and collapse.

"What the fuck?"

Knowing that she needed to inform Tony of this ASAP, Lara pulled her phone out of her back pocket and began texting as fast as she could.

Me: 911 Suss POI ST

It was a very drastic understatement of the situation, but it got the point across. Though, she knew that Tony probably wouldn't understand the slang she used. So, just to be on the safe side, she called as well. However, she found she could not get through as when she dialed his number, she just got a busy signal in response.

"Damn it," she cursed as the elevator doors opened back up. Getting to her feet, Lara sprinted back into the penthouse. "JARVIS!" she called out. "JARVIS, can you block the elevator so that way no one can access it?"

"The elevator already has that function built in," JARVIS said dryly. "I believe that's why Mr. Stark gave you a key."

"Whatever," Lara said. "That's not what I meant. Can you cut off the power to the elevator without messing up the building's whole set-up?"

"Already done." Lara turned around to see that the elevator doors hadn't closed and the lights were off. "I've also notified Tobias Wallace and the New York Police Department."

"Okay, good," she breathed. "That's good. Have you been able to reach Tony?"

"Unfortunately, no," JARVIS said. "I believe S.H.I.E.L.D. is jamming his cellular phone's signal. I will be unable to inform him of the situation until he either leaves or puts on the Iron Man armor."

"Ah," Lara said. "Shouldn't be surprised. I'm assuming you have access to all of the building's security cameras?"

"Indeed, I do," JARVIS confirmed.

"Can you put the live video feeds from in front of the private elevator and the lobby on the TV, please?" Lara asked.

"Certainly." The television then changed from an image of Johnny smiling insanely as he killed the last police officer, to one of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent once again trying to rip the elevator's control panel off the wall. About four other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that Lara could see had joined him as well, likely having come out of the woodworks while Lara was being attacked. She was twice as grateful that she hit the button for the doors when she did.

For several minutes, Lara watched as the company of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tried desperately to get the elevator to work. They could always just take the stairs, but it was 49 floors up to the main penthouse floor and it was less feasible to try to invade via that route. Just to be safe, though, Lara locked the access doors to the stairs.

Lara tried getting ahold of Tony once again, but still, all she got was a busy signal. She tried calling Pepper next, but her phone rang several times before going to voicemail. She then tried Steve, hoping that he was with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony as well so that he could pass on the message, but no dice. She thought about calling either Tony's bodyguard Happy Hogan or his best friend, Col. James Rhodes, but both were on the other side of the country and were unlikely to be of any help. Finally, Lara called 911, just to make sure they were on their way. That ended up being the most productive phone call as the police needed details that JARVIS just couldn't give them, such as identifying marks, the attackers' demeanor, and what exactly they were capable of. Lara assumed a lot given how painful that punch to the face was.

While Lara talked to the police on the phone, she saw the building's head of security, Tobias Wallace, walk up to the suspicious individuals. Wallace had his back to the camera, so she couldn't see what he was saying, but she assumed he asked them to leave. Lara felt her gut twist unpleasantly. Although the agent that attacked her wasn't armed, his buddies clearly were, and she couldn't help but worry about what they might do. Still, they seemed compliant enough, so much so that Lara eventually relaxed and sent Tony another text.

Me: Never mind. Wallace has it under control. ALL CLEAR.

She'd later come to regret that text.

At first, the intruders resisted only with words. By Lara's guess, they were demanding Wallace to get the elevators operational for them. Likely, Wallace refused, and he was struck on the back of the head with the butt of one of the agents' rifles. The blow didn't knock him unconscious, but it clearly took a lot out of him as his left hand went to protect the spot that had been hit while his right hand supported him as he leaned over in a kneeling position. Lara narrated the events to the 911 operator, who put in a request for an ambulance along with the police back-up, which according to the operator, should arrive momentarily. That ended up being too long.

Again, the agents demanded him to open the elevator and again Wallace must have refused to do so as another one of the agents delivered a swift, hard kick to his ribs, causing Wallace to fall over and roll onto his back. At that point, the agent that attacked Lara pulled a Sig Saur out of the holster at his side, cocked it, and pointed it directly at Wallace's head. Once again, a demand was made to open the elevator. Once again, Wallace refused. With a bright flash from the gun's muzzle and a small explosion of blood from the top of Wallace's head, his life was ended. It took everything Lara had in her not to scream directly into the phone. Instead, she just fell back on what she learned in training for these kinds of situations with the Secret Service; remain calm and focus on the objective.

"We have a man down," Lara reported to the operator. "Mid 50's male shot once in the head."

"Are you sure?" The operator asked. "I didn't hear any gunshots."

"Yes ma'am," she said. "I just saw it happen on live security footage."

"Is he responsive?"

"I'm not sure," Lara reluctantly admitted. "As I said, I'm watching this on a live feed. I can't confirm that without putting myself at risk. I would think not, though, given the location of the wound and the angle of the shot."

"Okay," the operator said. "Police are entering the building now, they should be with you in a moment." Lara doubted that, but she still gave a polite ", okay, thank you, ma'am." "Now you said these people are armed with guns and shields?"

"No," Lara said. "They don't have shields. The work for an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. or are at least wearing their uniforms. They do have handguns and rifles, though."

"Got it."

Lara watched the screen as the first officers walked through the lobby's doors with guns drawn. She bit her lip and watched uncomfortably as they walked into what was sure to be their certain doom. Even though she had warned the 911 operator of the seriousness of the situation, there had clearly been a breakdown in communications somewhere because as far as she could tell, none of the officers were wearing tactical gear or even a single trace of Kevlar. They were very unprepared to fall into the trap that had been set up for them.

It seemed that the agents had seen the cops coming from a mile away. While two of them worked to re-wire the elevator to get it to work (as they successfully managed to get the control panel off the wall) and a third stood guard, the remaining two set forth down the hall to greet their incoming guests. Lara watched with bated breath as they walked out of frame. She knew with great certainty what was going to come next; an ambush.

"Two of the agents just walked out of frame," she said. "I'm not sure where they went, but I think they might know that the police are here."

"Okay," the operator said. "I'll let them know."

"Let them know fast," Lara urged. "It's very much possible that they're trying to set up an ambush."

"Okay." Lara pinched the bridge of her nose. Maybe calling 911 wasn't as productive as she originally thought.

"I need to put down the phone for a second," she said. "I won't hang up, I'm just going to ask someone something really quick." She didn't wait for the operator's response as she turned off speakerphone and set the device down on the table in front of her. Taking a deep breath to collect herself, she turned her gaze upwards at the unseen being. "JARVIS, what is the fastest escape route barring the elevator?"

"Any of the three stairwells would suffice," the AI explained. "But I would recommend the emergency stairwell in the south-west corner of the building. It is reinforced with steel and was built to withstand a potential explosion or building collapse. The access doors to each floor are also bullet-resistant."

"Thank you," Lara said as she got up and ran to the kitchen. "I don't think it's a good idea to stay here."

"I would have to agree with that conclusion." Lara nodded as she grabbed a knife from one of the kitchen drawers. It wasn't deathly sharp and probably wouldn't do much against an AK-47, but it would work in a pinch if she needed it to.

"I just have one more question to ask," she said. "Where does Tony keep his belts?"

* * *

Securing the belt as tightly as she could around the metal brace at the door, Lara once hoped to all dear goodness it would hold up if someone tried to enter through one of the other two stairwells. It was an easy and effective way to barricade a door in the event of an active shooter, so she had to assume that it could withstand some stress. Just in case, though, she made sure for the eighth time that the door was locked and pushed another table against it just to be sure. She knew that to escape, the door to the emergency stairwell wasn't going to be reinforced, but JARVIS promised to lock it once she left, so she had to hope that bare minimum of protection was enough.

Hopping down from the table top, Lara grabbed her purse and the handful of belts she had grabbed from Tony's room. It was a long way down and there was no telling whether she'd be able to make it all the way down without any issues. If she got cornered by these guys, she wanted to have an easy way to deny them access to her location and find an alternate escape route. Though, she doubted there'd be many of those, especially on the higher levels.

Stuffing the belts into her purse and reaching back to feel if the knife was still in her back pocket, Lara felt confident she was prepared enough. The only thing she was missing was her cell phone, which she quickly retrieved from where she left it on the table in the living area. Tapping the screen, she wasn't surprised to see that 911 had hung up on her. She wasn't too angry about it as a huge emergency response was amassing outside and there were likely gunshots heard after the police squadron was likely ambushed by those two agents, resulting in several people calling 911 and them needing to free up the line, but still, hanging up on someone was probably the last thing you should do as a 911 operator. Shrugging that aside for the moment, Lara opened her phone and sent another text message to Tony.

Me: I really hope you're getting this Tony because if S.H.I.E.L.D. is jamming this, too, I don't know what I can do. I MADE A MISTAKE! THREAT IS NOT CLEAR! THREAT LEVEL MIDNIGHT! Intruders still in the building wearing S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms. Evacuating now. Please be safe and stay safe!

She quickly followed it up with a text message to Coulson.

Me: Phil, I don't know what is going on here or why S.H.I.E.L.D. called Tony in, but we have people in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms attacking and killing police and civilians. It's only sheer luck that I'm alive right now. Care to tell me what's going on or is this another Hilary Clinton situation?

With that, she slid her phone back into her purse and began making her way to the emergency stairwell. However, it was too late. As soon as she opened the door, Lara heard footsteps and several voices trying to whisper as quietly as possible. Before she could even make out what they were saying or who they were, she shut the door without letting it make a sound.

 _Crap,_ she exclaimed in her head. _I took too long! Should have known there'd be two teams! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!_

Despite not knowing how many of them there were or how close they were, Lara instantly made the decision to fully barricade herself in the penthouse. After all, if she couldn't evacuate without avoiding the potential threat, her best bet was to deny them access to her location. Locking the door, she grabbed another one of the belts from her purse and wrapped it around the metal brace. There were no tables nearby that she could use to barricade the door. The best she could do was grab a chair from another room and try to prop it underneath the door. As she did that, though, she could hear someone on the other side trying (and failing) to turn the knob.

Feeling all the air leave her lungs at once, Lara took a few steps back and momentarily froze up. An unknown number of highly-trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents against one former Secret Service agent who already had pain in her abdomen flaring up from where her bullet wound scar was. The odds weren't in her favor. She only snapped out of it when she remembered that her best chance to survive was to deny them access to her location. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted down the hall and ran into the first room she saw.

The room ended up being a small closet and when she said small, she really meant **small**. It probably had a total square area of one foot. She had plenty of room, though, but there was no lock on the door. She'd leave and find another room to hide in, but now really wasn't the time to play musical chairs. She slipped another belt around the door's handle and pulled on it tightly. If someone came in, she'd have only her brute strength to rely on to keep her safe, but she figured no matter what, she'd be toast if anyone discovered her location.

Pulling out her phone, Lara sent one last text to Tony before shutting it off.

Me: Evac not possible. Standing my ground.

Taking a deep breath, Lara tried to reassure herself that she'd be fine and that help was most likely on the way. What she didn't know was that Tony wouldn't get her text messages until a full hour later, and when JARVIS tried to notify him of the situation, he got ignored as Tony had the bigger issue of keeping a hellicarier from falling out of the sky to deal with. Help wasn't coming for a while.

* * *

 **Thank you to mfaerie32 on FFN for the review and to Illegirlsus, mammal, and the guest who left kudos on AO3!**

 **Hopefully, this wasn't too filler-y for you. A thing that always bothered me about the movie was that S.H.I.E.L.D. easily could have warned the public that there was an attack imminent and started evacuating Midtown well before the battle happened, but they didn't. I guess maybe they didn't want to alarm Loki, but still, you're playing with civilian lives there. Also, before anyone says "well, what were they going to tell the public? A crazy god was about to launch an alien invasion force upon them? They'd never believe it!" I'd like to inform you that there's this little thing called "lying." They easily could have lied and said it was a threatened attack by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban or some other terrorist group just to get the people up and moving and then fully disclose what happened later. It's not that hard.**

 **Remember kids, I still want that _Angels With Filthy Souls_ movie! Give it to me FOX!**

* * *

 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 1/3/19.**


	11. Step by Step, Heart to Heart

**So, who's ready for some feels?**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

Tony stared at the wall, his back turned on Steve and Fury. It wasn't out of anger. It was more shame. Shame that while they were arguing about something that now just seemed to be completely petty, Loki was able to launch a successful attack on the Hellicarrier. Shame that they had easily fallen into Loki's play. Shame that both Thor and Bruce were now MIA. Shame that Coulson had to die…

That was the worst part. This was a ship full of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with four enhanced persons on board, and yet none of them could do anything to stop it. Loki got away, Coulson was dead… They got Barton back, but that bright side completely paled in comparison to what they'd lost. To think, this all could have never happened if they just pulled together and worked as a team, but that was never going to happen. Anyone who even thought for a millisecond that this was going to work was absolutely kidding themselves.

 _Banner was right,_ Tony thought. _We're nothing but a time bomb._

He kept his gaze solidly on the wall. He couldn't look at Steve. He couldn't look at Fury. He couldn't look at anyone, really. He just wanted the rest of the world to go away so he could drown in his own shame. Unfortunately, he didn't have that luxury.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Tony didn't even turn to see what Fury was talking about. He didn't need to. Everyone had heard about the trading cards by now. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." Tony heard the cards hit the glass of the table, but he still didn't turn around. He didn't look at Steve. He just stayed silent. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

 _Yeah, definitely_. Tony directed his gaze from the wall to his lap. _Not the time._

"Yes," Fury admitted. "We were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." Tony froze. He knew where this was going. "There was an idea – Stark knows this – called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more; to see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." By that point, Fury had moved so he was standing directly behind Tony. Tony just stared ahead and continued to refuse to look at anyone. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea; in heroes."

That made Tony stand up. He still didn't look at anyone as he walked straight out of the meeting room and down the hall. No one protested. No one tried to follow him. He was glad for that. He needed to get out of there and he knew just where to go.

* * *

The world kept changing, flashing back and forth. One second, Clint would be watching his home and family being destroyed; the next, he would be in a room made up of sharp pinks and electric blues, edges thrumming on green. In this world, a huge group of people was surrounding him, trying to insert needles and whispering in menacing voices phrases like "we only want to help, Agent Barton," and "please, you need to rest, let us help you get back to sleep." There was only one voice in and amongst that mess that he recognized, and he was greatly relieved when he heard it.

"Give Barton some space. Crowding him like this is making things worse."

"Oh," he heard one of the more menacing voices say. "And when exactly did you get your medical degree, Agent Romanoff?"

"I don't need one to tell you that if you don't back off a bit, Barton's going to break free of his restraints and shove that needle right through your…" Before Natasha could finish that sentence, Clint felt a sharp pain in his right arm.

"He's out," was the last thing Clint could remember hearing before he was pulled back into the looping nightmare.

* * *

It started happening again and this time it was more of a fight for Clint to keep his focus in one world. He didn't know which one was real – hell, they could **both** be real – but he just wanted to stop being yanked from one to the other so violently.

Flash!

He was running towards the house. He could see the missiles coming. If he was just a little faster this time maybe he cold gets to them in time to save them, or at the very least, die with them.

Flash!

Dim yellow light glowed from the panel above his head. The rest of the ceiling was a rich blue in color. He could clearly tell that something was wrong with his vision. It wasn't supposed to be that sharp, that bright…

Flash!

Clint was thrown back across the yard as the missile touched the ground. He could see every panel, floorboard, and shard of glass break apart in slow motion. His family was in that house; Laura, Lila, Cooper…

Flash!

He could feel something tight gripping his wrists. He tried to turn them just to be in a slightly more comfortable position but instead found that the leather straps were digging into his skin way too tightly. Pulling as hard as he could, Clint tried to do everything he could to break free of the restraints.

Flash!

He was running up the hill, running to the farmhouse. He once again froze when he saw the sheer amount of destruction, his heart sinking, his universe collapsing. Continuing to follow the same pattern, he ran up to Natasha when he saw her sifting through the ruble. He said the same lines he said a thousand times, but this time something unexpected happened. He could hear her.

"Clint."

Flash!

Clint forced himself to sit up as he continued to pull on the restraints. He fought desperately for control; to stay in one reality long enough to determine what was real and what wasn't. Tears collected in the corners of his eyes. His wrists ached with pain. The only reassuring thing was that he could still hear Natasha's voice.

"Clint," she said. "You're going to be alright."

Suddenly, this reality started to feel like it had gravity to it. He kept expecting for a flash to pull him away into the other one, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. After a few seconds, he felt safe enough to try and respond to her.

"You know that?" he chuckled humorlessly. "Is that what you know?" He then leaned back to find he was on an exam table like the ones found in most private practice doctor's offices. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but Clint found himself decompressing and relaxing on top of it like it was the world's finest feather-filled mattress with the softest silk sheets money could buy. "I have no window," he heard himself saying. "I have to flush him out."

"You've got to level out." He could hear Natasha filling a glass of water. "It's gonna take time."

"You don't understand," Clint breathed. His entire body felt horrible. Whatever Loki did to him, it clearly didn't have a pleasant aftermath. He couldn't think of one part of his body that didn't hurt, even in places where he hadn't been hit. He would put money on the idea that all his muscles were striking in solidarity with his brain, eyes, throat, ears, and heart. "Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in?"

 _Something that survived only off fear,_ he thought. _Something that told you that the only way to stop the pain was to accept some madman as your lord and savior?_

"Do you know what it's like to be unmade?" It only took eye contact with Natasha for Clint to remind himself who he was talking to.

"You know that I do," she said. Clint looked down and tried to regain control of his breathing. It was still much too heavy for his liking.

"Why am I back?" he questioned. "How'd you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration," Natasha said simply as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I hit you really hard on the head."

"Thanks," Clint said. Natasha looked up for a moment before going back to removing the restraints around his wrists. "Natasha… How many agents did I…"

"Don't," Natasha said sharply. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki," Clint said. "Did he get away?"

"Yeah," Natasha confirmed. "I don't suppose you know where?" Clint sighed.

"I didn't need to know," he explained. "I didn't ask." Natasha got up and moved to look out the glass panel on the door to his exam room/cell. Her hands were on her hips and though she had her back to him, Clint doubted he'd be able to read the expression on her face if she was facing him. "He's going to make his play soon, though," he was able to supply as he reached for the glass of water. "Today."

"We got to stop him." Natasha's voice had a sense of decided determination as she turned around.

"Yeah," Clint said. "Who's 'we?'"

"I don't know," Natasha said. "Whoever's left." Clint gave a little nod.

"Well," he said. "If I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket I'd sleep better I suppose." As he finished saying that, Clint took his right hand and tapped the area over his heart with his two middle fingers while keeping his thumb, index, and pinkie finger straight. Natasha nodded in understanding.

"Safe," she assured. "The Calvary has the situation under control." Clint's face filled with relief.

"Remind me to get her something extra nice for Christmas this year," he said. "Seriously, she didn't need to do that."

"She was helping out a friend," Natasha said. "She doesn't need any kind of repayment."

"Still, that's huge, especially considering she hasn't been in the field since Bahrain…" A small smile came across Clint's face. "I'm actually kind of proud of her." Natasha reflected that smile as she sat down next to him.

"Now you sound like you," she said.

"But you don't." Natasha's smile disappeared. "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't. I just…" Natasha looked down like she couldn't figure out what to say.

"Natasha."

"I've been compromised," she explained. "I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out."

* * *

It was silent in the containment room as Steve stepped inside. Tony wasn't hard to miss. He was standing on the edge of one of the ramps that previously led to the containment module before Loki sent it plummeting back towards Earth with Thor inside. Steve didn't even try to bother going over to him or trying to talk to him. Instead, he just went and stood on the edge of one of the other ramps and just waited. Waited for Tony to say something, to make the first move. It never happened, so Steve finally gave in and said something.

"Was he married?"

"No," Tony quickly provided. "There was a cellist, I think… Melinda might've been her name."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." That was the truth of it. The few interactions he had with Agent Coulson were awkward at best, Steve could tell he was truly dedicated to the idea of helping and protecting people. That was enough in his mind to make the loss tragic. However, he could hear Tony scoff at that.

"He was an idiot," he said.

"Why?" Steve questioned. "For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony slowly backed away from the edge of the ramp.

"He was doing his job," Steve pointed out. Tony let out yet another scoff.

"He was out of his league," he said. "He should have waited. He should have…" Tony came to a stop where the ramp met the catwalk and looked down.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve said as he began to make his way over to the other man.

"Right," Tony said as he passed him. "I've heard that before."

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers," Tony turned and snapped. This time, Steve didn't feel any surge in anger like he did when he was arguing with Tony before. Every time Tony spoke two words, he just felt himself getting angrier. Now, all Steve felt for Tony was sympathy. These were not words made in the heat of irrational anger. This was the pain of loss that was making Tony snap. It was completely understandable. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I," Steve assured. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we've got to put that behind us and get this done."

"So, is this all that we're putting behind us?" Tony asked. "Because I'm getting pretty sick of leaving all these conversations between us hanging." Steve sighed. He moved so he had one hand on the railing and looked down at the metal seal of the airlock below. This wasn't how he imagined telling Tony, but it seemed he had no other choice.

"You're not going to like what I have to say." It was the truth. He couldn't imagine a scenario in which Tony reciprocated his feelings. Tony didn't back down. He mirrored Steve's stance and looked at him dead on.

"Try me." Steve raised his gaze so that he was looking Tony directly in the eyes. It was now or never.

"I have a crush on you." A wave of anxiety crashed over Steve as the fateful words came out of his mouth. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you, and it doesn't matter if you reciprocate or not. The reason why I was trying to keep my distance was that, for some reason in the back of my mind, I was afraid that if I gave any indication of that – no matter how subtle – S.H.I.E.L.D. or Loki would catch on and it would end in you getting hurt. That's all it was and I'm sorry I allowed it to escalate to the level where we were arguing and trying to hurt each other. That was probably more dangerous than any scenario I could imagine. Can you forgive me for that?"

Things were silent. The expression on Tony's face was unreadable. Steve knew that wasn't a good sign. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and waited for the rejection. It took a little bit, but eventually, Tony came to his senses and was able to give some response. However, it was worse than a simple "no," and more insulting. Tony started laughing.

Steve opened his eyes to see that Tony had one hand on his stomach, the other hand gripping the railing tightly so that way he wouldn't fall over. The sight was enough to make Steve throw a hard glare at Tony before turning to walk away. Tony's hand flung out to grab his arm.

"No," he said between gasps of air. "No, no, no, don't. I'm sorry… I'm not laughing at you. I think this is a hysterical break." The way Tony's voice cracked at the end of that sentence was enough to convince him to turn around and take another look at the man. Now, he could see that Tony was shaking a little bit and tears had gathered in the corners of his eyes. Steve turned and grabbed Tony by the shoulders, attempting to help him support his weight.

"Are you okay?" Steve hoped his voice didn't sound as panicked as he thought it did.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony assured, taking a deep breath. "I'm fine, it's just… This entire situation…" He let out a little bit of a humorous laugh before looking up and locking eyes with Steve again. "When you were going to come over to the tower the other night, I was going to tell you something similar." Steve raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I have feelings for you, Steve. Real, romantic feelings… I… I was scared I ruined it."

"Ruined what?" Steve rubbed one of his hands across Tony's shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Any chance I had with you," Tony clarified. "First with almost kissing you last week, then with all this fighting… God, the fighting… I'm so sorry Steve. I didn't mean any of that stuff I said either. I was just so mad and hurt..."

"The things we said in the heat of the moment we can work out later," Steve said. "For right now, just focus on calming yourself down. We're not going to be able to do anything if you don't pull it together."

"Right, right," Tony agreed. He took a deep breath, and then a step forward into Steve's arms, wrapping his arms around his waist. "This helps." Steve stifled a chuckle before wrapping one arm around Tony's waist and bringing the other one up, so he could run his fingers through Tony's hair.

"Yeah," he agreed. "This helps."

They stood there for a few minutes in absolute silence. Tony kept his focus on getting his breathing under control while Steve kept an eye out for any passersby. He kept repeating to himself that they wouldn't get in trouble for this, but still, as he learned over the past couple of days, old habits die hard. Eventually, Tony was calm enough to pull away a little bit but kept his hands firmly on Steve's waist.

"Okay," he said. "I'm calm. I can think clearly now."

"Good," Steve said. "Now tell me what's going on in that genius mind of yours." The corners of Tony's lips raised upwards for a second before getting down to business.

"Loki needs a power source," Tony said. "Somewhere that can provide enough energy to get the Cube up and running. There aren't that many places on Earth that can generate that kind of power, so it's a short list."

"It's a start," Steve said. "If we can narrow it down the number of facilities…"

"He made it personal," Tony suddenly interrupted.

"Okay," Steve said. "That's not the point, though."

"That is the point." Steve could see something clicking together behind Tony's eyes. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve said.

"Yeah," Tony said. "Divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right," Steve agreed. "I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah," Tony said. "That's just previews. This is opening night and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…" Right then, Tony's eyes went wide. He quickly pulled out of the embrace and his hands went to the phone in his back pocket. It only took one tap of the screen for Tony to find what he was looking for. "Son of a bitch," he cursed.

* * *

 **Thank you to RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley for the follow, mfaerie32 for the review, and Star for the guest review (response below) all on FFN, and mangonanas_1 for the comments and kudos on AO3! It really means a lot!**

 **Yay! They made up, and just in time, too! I hope you all are enjoying this story! Please don't be shy to leave a comment or a review!**

 **Remember kids, step by step, heart to heart, left, right, left, we all fall down like toy soldiers...**

* * *

 **Star: Hi! Thank you for the reviews! Just so you know, the Star on my profile was referring to star/asterisk/* next to nymphomaniac's name. They beta-d a chapter for me back in 2015 for a work that's no longer posted. I still wanted to give them proper credit for the work they did though as it still exists on blogspot. I currently do not have a beta reader. You can still be Star, though! :)**

* * *

 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 1/6/19.**


	12. Come Together Right Now

**Merry Second Christmas!**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

"Time to go," Steve said as soon as the door slid open.

"Go where?" Natasha questioned.

"I'll tell you on the way," Steve said. "Can you fly one of those jets?" He saw her working the co-pilot's seat before, but he wasn't sure if she can pilot the craft by herself, or if it was even possible. However, Natasha didn't give an answer before Clint stepped out of the bathroom.

"I can," he said without any hesitation. Steve looked over at Natasha, who gave a nod of assurance.

"You got a suit?" Steve asked Clint.

"Yeah," Clint said as he finished wiping off his hands.

"Then suit up." He then disappeared from the doorframe.

* * *

Tony tried dialing the NYPD's non-emergency number a third time. Still, he got a busy signal. He growled in frustration. At first, he thought the attack might have already started and the lines were clogged, but that didn't make sense because, in a doomsday situation like the one they were potentially standing on the precipice of, everyone would be dialing 911, not the non-emergency number. The only reason why Tony was using the non-emergency number was that he didn't want to clog up the line for people who needed immediate help. Still, the police needed to be notified if they hadn't already. The area needed to be evacuated ASAP before anyone could get hurt.

However, Tony was slightly suspicious as to why the phone wouldn't dial and found himself going through his contacts, trying to see if he could get through to anyone at all. Lara, busy signal. Steve, busy signal. Pepper, busy signal. Rhodey, busy signal. It didn't take a genius to figure out by that point that S.H.I.E.L.D. must have some sort of signal-jammer somewhere on the boat and he couldn't get calls out, and more importantly, he couldn't get calls in. He should probably consider it a miracle that he got those texts from Lara at all. He wouldn't be surprised if she had tried to call him multiple times and was unable to get through. In fact, he even tried to use JARVIS but found the AI to be unresponsive.

So, irritated at the fact that no one on this ship could contact the outside world for help – a stupid and wildly dangerous thing to do – Tony went straight to the bridge, spotted an agent who looked to be talking on an old-school land-line phone, pulled the device from their hand, hung up on whoever they were talking to and started to dial out. Hill descended upon him in seconds. She tried to ask him what the hell he was doing but he shushed her as the operator picked up the phone.

"New York City Police Department Central Communications Hub, this call is being recorded, how can I help you?" If he wasn't in a public place and on the phone with the police, Tony would have given a "Hallelujah" at that point.

"Yes," he said. "My name is Anthony Stark and I'd like to report a potential public safety threat at 200 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan."

"Public safety…" Tony held up a hand to cut Hill off. At this point, the situation had caught Fury's attention and he had started making his way over.

"What kind of threat, Sir?" The operator asked.

"A very serious one," Tony said. "Potentially armed combatants, explosives, mass casualties…" That was the best way he could think of to put it without coming across like a complete loon. After all, who would honestly believe that a Norse God was about to unleash an army of alien invaders from the sky. "The area needs to start being evacuated now."

"Uh, I'm looking up the address in our systems now," the operator said. "And it seems we've already got reports of at least one active shooter in the area. Police are on the scene."

 _Shit!_ Tony hoped to dear God no one had been hurt yet. Just the thought that he might be too late…

"Ah, sir, would you mind stating your name again?" The operator asked. "Just for the record. I didn't catch it the last time." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Tony Stark," he said again. " **The** Tony Stark, Iron Man. The building you should be responding to is Stark Tower, 200 Park Avenue. It's imperative that all civilians be evacuated from the area immediately."

"Oh… Okay, sir!" It was clear that the operator was having a hard time not sounding starstruck. "I'll notify all responding officers and get you in contact with the chief of police. Is there anything else we should be aware of?"

"I have to run, but I'm sure my friend Nick here would be more than happy to assist with the logistics and strategy of this whole thing." With that, he thrust the phone into Fury's hands and squeezed through the small crowd that had gathered. Hill was quick to chase after him.

"Stark!" she called after him. "Stark! What's going on?"

"Loki's going to use the arc reactor at Stark Tower to fire up the Cube," he explained without even giving Hill a glance. "Everything within a few blocks of the tower… Hell, maybe all of Midtown needs to be evacuated ASAP."

"You're absolutely sure about that?" Hill questioned.

"Unless the fact that armed gunmen have invaded my tower is purely coincidental, then yeah, I'm pretty sure." Hill's attempt to keep that very nasty curse under her breath failed.

"Alright, I'll gather everyone to the bridge," she said. "Try to come up with a plan of attack."

"I'm afraid we don't have time for that," Tony said. "Loki's going to open up that portal at any minute now and we all need to be ready to act in an instant. Now if you excuse me, I have a suit to fix."

Tony then bolted down the nearest stairwell. He had to hurry. Every second passed was a second wasted and lives were truly on the line.

* * *

"Hey, J," Tony said as soon as they were a good distance from the Hellicarier. "Can you hear me, buddy?"

"Loud and clear, Sir." Tony let out a breath of relief he didn't know he'd been holding. "I feel it is imperative that I inform you that armed intruders…"

"Have entered the building," Tony finished. "I already know. Is Conroy okay? The last text she sent said she couldn't get out."

"Miss Conroy is hiding in a closet by the entrance to the south-western stairwell," JARVIS informed. "She has thus far gone undetected. Her vital signs show heightened levels of anxiety, but there is no indication that she has been critically wounded." Another relief.

"Good," Tony said. "How many players are we looking at here?"

"Roughly two-dozen," JARVIS said. "Although, most of them appear to be patrolling the lower floors and stairways. A facial recognition scan detected that Dr. Eric Selvig and Loki are currently at the Tower. Dr. Selvig is on the roof while Loki is in the penthouse below."

"And no one's with him?"

"It would appear so, Sir."

"So, I take it he's just inviting us in to attack him?" Tony questioned. "Classy, but I suppose I might as well take him up on the offer." Right as he said that, one of the repulsor jets near his feet briefly went out before sputtering back to life. "Not like I have much of a choice."

"I'll notify the police of your intentions."

"Good," Tony said. "The last thing I need right now is to get shot down by some overzealous cop. By the way, can you link me into one of the New York local stations' live feeds, audio only? Not the best way to get up-to-the-minute information, but it'll give us an idea of what we're walking into."

"Right away, Sir."

"Patch it through to the Quinjet, too," Tony said. "They need to hear this."

"Certainly."

"Thanks, J." Within seconds a woman's voice was filling the speakers in Tony's suit.

"…We have no confirmation of any deaths at this point, but police are asking people to stay out of the area."

"Stark, what is this?" The volume of the feed dimmed a bit as Natasha's voice came through the comms.

"Live news feed," Tony explained. "Police have been called to the tower."

"Loki?" she asked.

"Most likely," he confirmed. "JARVIS has eyes on him in the tower right now."

"Once again, if you are just joining us, you're watching WABC-TV, I'm Rosaleen Abraham, and right now what your looking at on screen is a view of the newly-built Stark Tower in Midtown, Manhattan. Police have been called to the scene as reports of an active shooter have come in…"

"Christ…" The anguish in Clint's voice is clear. "He has them shooting at civilians?"

"The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Loki has captured are patrolling everything below the penthouse floor," Tony explained. "Loki's in the penthouse, Selvig's on the roof, and I really hope no one's been hurt yet."

"Was there anyone in the building?" Steve asks.

"Conroy and a few security personnel," Tony said. "That's it."

"What about Pepper?"

"She went to D.C. to discuss plans for a second tower. She shouldn't be back yet."

"Good, that's good."

"Listen," Tony said. "None of you are going to like hearing this, but I'm going to have to go in there and confront Loki by myself for a few minutes."

"Tony, no." Steve's voice is firm, but Tony could hear the tiniest bit of worry mixed in there.

"Are you crazy?" Natasha questioned.

"That's suicide!" Clint exclaimed. Right at that moment, the jet in Tony's left hand sputtered off and on again.

"Gah!" Tony shook his hand to stabilize it. Somehow, it worked. "Look, it's not like I have much of a choice. I'll be lucky if this suit lasts until we reach the tower. I already have plans drawn up for the MK9, all I need to do is buy myself a few minutes while JARVIS assembles it. Once I've gotten my new suit and gotten out of there, the rest of the plan's yours, Winghead. You're calling the shots."

"Winghead?" Steve questioned.

"What?" Tony said. "You don't like that term of endearment?"

"Ah… No, it's fine it's just, ah…" Natasha lets out an audible sigh.

"Alright," she said. "Can we just establish this rule now? No flirting over the public comms." Tony smirked.

"No promises, Romanoff."

"Wait, what?" From there the comms cut off. Tony couldn't help but let out a small laugh to himself. He could only imagine what was going on in that jet right now, but he had to imagine it was some variation of the same "it's okay to be gay" speech he's given Steve over the past year.

* * *

The suit was truly on its last legs when Tony finally reached the tower. Natasha and Clint had agreed to keep back, at least for a few minutes. However, if Tony didn't come out of the Tower by then, they were going in, full-force.

The news had given some helpful insight as to the scene they'd be walking into. Although none of the news media could tell what was going on inside of the building, they were able to confirm that the police had everything from East 53rd Street to East 34th street blocked off and Park Avenue was almost completely shut down. Good thing the New York Police Department was taking his warnings seriously. He couldn't imagine how bad the loss of life would be if they didn't start getting people out now. As he got closer to the building, he heard JARVIS' voice speak up once again.

"Sir, I've turned off the arc reactor," he informed. "but the device is already self-sustaining."

 _Well, there goes one fail-safe._ He went to his next option as he flew in close to the tower's roof.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony ordered. The wind blew the scientist's hair wildly as he turned around.

"It's too late!" he called out. "She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe."

"Okay." Tony raised his hands to charge up the repulors and fired. The blasts were immediately blocked by a light blue iridescent shield, obviously being powered by the Tesseract. The force of the collision knocked Selvig to the floor and Tony back a few feet. From the ground, he could hear the few onlookers that hadn't yet evacuated give out gasps of surprise.

"The barrier is pure energy," JARVIS informed. "It's unbreachable."

"Yeah, I got that," Tony remarked. He lowered his gaze to one of the balconies and saw Loki standing there with his head held high. "Plan B."

"Sir, the MK9 is not ready for deployment yet."

"Then skip the spinning rims. We're on the clock." Tony touched down on the landing pad, slightly relieved to be back on solid ground after spending an hour in the air with a – at this point – barely reliable suit. As the disassembly process began, Tony didn't take his eyes off Loki, who moved to follow him into the penthouse. Tony took a deep breath.

 _Only a few minutes. You've just got to last a few minutes…_

Looking around the penthouse, he was relieved to see that nothing had been broken (yet) and there was no blood or signs of a struggle. All indications that no one had been seriously hurt or killed yet. The only thing he could see that was out of place was that someone had belted the access stairwell's door shut. Other than that, the place was in pristine condition. Glancing over to his right, he could see the Norse Trickster God approaching.

"Please, tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," he said, an air of amusement in his voice.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Tony said as he began to descend the stairs to the lounge below.

"You should have left your armor on for that," Loki remarked.

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" He gestured over to the bar by the foot of the stairs.

"Stalling me won't change anything," Loki said.

"No, no, no," Tony said as he stepped behind the bar. "Threatening. No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one." He knew that probably wasn't a wise idea, but he needed something to take the edge off all the emotions swirling through him. Otherwise, he might have another hysterical break and he honestly didn't think he'd be able to pull himself together as quickly as he did last time. Meanwhile, Loki let out a seemingly agitated breath and moved to look out the glass wall beside him.

"The Chitauri are coming," he said. "Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers," Tony commented as he opened a glass bottle. Loki gave him a strange look. "That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."

"Yes," Loki said. "I've met them."

"Yeah," Tony laughed. "It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one, but let's do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod…" Loki looked away at the mention of his brother and Tony used that as an opportunity to retrieve the bracelets he had slipped under the bar's counter. "A Super Soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins…" Tony felt a thankful bit of satisfaction come over him as he clicked the second bracelet shut. "And you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan," Loki remarked.

"Not a great plan," Tony pointed out as he took a sip off his drink. Yup, he could already feel the alcohol working its magic. He started to make his way across the room to face Loki. "When they come – and they will – they'll come for you."

"I have an army," Loki pointed out.

"We have a Hulk." Loki continued to look non-pulsed.

"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off," he remarked.

"You're missing the point," Tony said. "There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you because if we can't protect the Earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it." Loki still didn't seem phased. In fact, it looked as though he was biting back a smirk.

"How will your friends have time for me," he said. "when they are so busy fighting you?" Tony barely had a second to react before Loki raised his staff and touched it to his chest. A soft **clink** was heard as the metal of the staff hit the housing of the Arc Reactor. Loki's face fell. He tried raising it a second time and touched it to Tony's chest, producing the same result. The Arc Reactor covered his heart, protecting it from whatever magic hijacking spell Loki had tried to put on him. That was the second time since this whole thing started that his genius had inadvertently saved him. "This usually works."

"Well, performance issues," Tony said. "It's not uncommon. One out of five…" Before he could finish that, Loki grabbed him tightly around the throat and flung him across the room. Tony hit the floor with a little grunt. "JARVIS, anytime now." He tried to get up but Loki seized him by the throat again.

"You will all fall before me," he snarled out.

"Deploy!" Tony called out before being thrown through the glass wall behind him.

Arms and legs flailing as the empty street below began to rush up at him Tony quickly tried to get himself into a calm, freefall position as they tell you to do while skydiving. His only hope was that JARVIS had heard him and was sending out the suit now. Luckily, the AI didn't disappoint. Within seconds of crashing through the window himself, Tony heard another crash coming from behind him. The suit had locked on to the bracelets he was wearing and was quickly working to assemble itself around Tony and catch him as he fell. With everything clicking into place, Tony just barely had enough time to stop his descent before he crashed into the pavement below. He made a mental note to work on how much time the assembly process took up as he steadied himself. Blasting up back towards the tower, Tony felt another bit of satisfaction roll over him as he came to face him.

"And there's one other person you pissed off," he said. "His name was Phil." Loki raised his scepter to fire at him, but Tony fired off one of his gauntlets before he could. Loki was pushed back with an agonized groan.

That little bit of satisfaction Tony had felt, though, died as soon as he heard mechanical **whirring** and a bright blue light shot up into the sky. The portal was opening.

* * *

 **Thanks to mfaerie32, Star, and the anon for reviewing on FFN and Zefirka1107 for the kudos on AO3! You guys rock!**

 **In the Eastern Orthodox religion, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th. I'm not entirely sure of the reasons why I think it has something to do with their calendar being different. No one in my family is Eastern Orthodox, but we do sometimes celebrate Christmas on this date because there are lots of us scattered across the country and for a lot of us it's easier to honor local commitments on Catholic Christmas and then come together on Orthodox Christmas to celebrate the holiday with our long-distance relatives (who, to be honest, are much nicer than my local relatives.) This year is no different, so while I'm celebrating, I just wanted to wish you all a happy holiday, even if you don't have this weird tradition as I do. Next time, we're getting into the real action!**

 **Remember kids, Second Christmas is Best Christmas!**

* * *

 **Anonymous: Thank you! The pictures in the cover art are stills from the film while the badges I believe came from merchandising. It took a few hours to edit in photoshop, so I'm happy to see someone who appreciates the effort! :)**

 **Star: No worries! Glad you're enjoying the story so far! :)**

* * *

 **Originally posted to FFN on 1/7/18.**


	13. The War

**You better be ready for the long haul...**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

Tony looked up at the sky with a flurry of emotions running through him, most of which he couldn't describe. An entire legion of alien soldiers on what he could only describe as flying motorcycles were emerging from a giant hole in the sky. Every possible warning indication that his suit could give him flashed onscreen, changing the HUD display from a light sky blue to an intense, bright red. He was glad he had that he had that drink while he had the chance.

"Right," he said. "Army."

He immediately took off towards the portal, hoping he could do something to stop the Chitauri soldiers before they made it to the ground and started hurting civilians. Although, yes, the streets were mostly empty, there were still a few stragglers and gawkers about plus the massive police presence down below. Not to mention the reporters out to get their fill of blood and guts in living color… With those lives at stake, Tony knew he had to either contain this ASAP or at least buy them enough time to at least start running for their lives if he couldn't.

Quickly, the Chitauri took notice of Tony and started firing at him. Tony quickly responded, knocking a few out of the sky with repulsor blasts and taking out as many as he could lock onto by firing the miniature homing missiles in his shoulders. He kept weaving through the flow of invaders. A few got away, but Tony chose to ignore them for the moment while he worked on making sure that a few of their friends got through as possible. If only his backup wasn't taking so long to arrive…

* * *

Loki looked on in awe. The chaos, the destruction… This was all his doing. Soon, Midgard would be his and from there, onto Asgard. His victory was within the mile. He could already see it. Absolutely nothing could stop him now.

"Loki!" He looked to his left. Thor had landed on the balcony just below him, donning his full battle armor with the same obnoxious, commanding tone in his voice. Oh, how Loki hated that tone. "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it."

"You can't," Loki protested. "There is no stopping it. There is only the war."

"So be it," Thor said. With that, Loki lunged at his brother, attempting to cleave him with the sharp edge of his staff. Thor ducked out of the way and tried to strike him with Mjolnir. Loki easily blocked that blow and tried to take a swing at Thor with the scepter. That ended up not being productive as Thor used Mjolnir to block him and the two-weapons colliding caused one or both to emit a small burst of energy which knocked part of the signage for Stark Tower off the building and onto the street below. Loki smirked to himself.

 _This is going to be fun._

* * *

"Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast." Tony never thought he'd ever be relieved to hear Natasha's voice, but at that moment, relief was an understatement. It was like hearing the voice of God and every angel in heaven singing the music of Queen as you ascended to the pearly gates. Still, they could've shown up sooner. By this point, Tony had given up on trying to shoot the aliens down before they made it out of the portal and was trying to lure as many as he could away from the streets, drawing the fire away from the police and scattered civilians.

"What," he snapped. "Did you stop for drive-thru?"

"I wish," Natasha quipped back. "That would have been so much more entertaining than explaining to your boyfriend that we don't care if he's gay and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. probably doesn't either." Tony felt a flutter of excitement run through his chest, especially when Steve didn't try to correct her. He probably would have started jumping up and down like a giddy schoolgirl, if it wasn't for the fact that he had aliens on hoverbikes tailing him; trying to shoot him down.

"Well, you three better get your asses down here," Tony said. "Because there's plenty of entertainment to go around. Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Pulling as many baddies as he could to his tail, Tony corkscrewed around the building, waiting for the Quinjet to get into position. As soon as he saw Clint and Natasha lining the plane up several blocks down, he sharply turned and sped across the Park Avenue Viaduct, the trail of Chitauri following closely behind. As they passed the outer façade of Grand Central Station, the jet opened fire on the alien invaders with a hidden rail gun, taking down almost every one of the creatures. Before anyone could think of celebrating, JARVIS' voice came through the speakers of the suit.

"Sir, we have more incoming," he said.

"Fine," Tony said, turning his gaze upwards. "Let's keep them occupied."

* * *

"Tony are you seeing this?" It was the first thing he had heard Steve say through the comms and thank goodness for that. Tony had seen the Quinjet go down and he didn't have time to see if they got out alright. Too many baddies had started coming at him at one time. Hearing Steve's voice and getting confirmation that they were okay eased a small bit of the pressure on his already wrecked nerves. He needed that, especially with what they were now facing.

"Seeing," he confirmed. "Still working on believing."

A large creature with a face like a turtle and that swam through the air as a whale emerged from the portal. Tony wasn't close enough to it when it came through to try and take a shot at it, and even if he could he doubted it would do any damage. The thing looked like it was heavily armored and as it got close to the ground, foot soldiers had descended from its inner shell onto the streets below. He suddenly wished he had enough time to grab a second drink, but he shook that thought off. He had to keep his head in the game.

"Where's Banner?" he asked. "Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Obviously, that was a no.

"Just keep me posted." Tony flew down the corridor parallel to the giant snake-turtle-sky-whale. His eyes ran up and down the length of the creature's body, searching for any opening he could spot. "JARVIS, find me a soft spot." As he gave out that order, part of the sky-whale's body collided with the top of a building. The creature seemed unharmed, but the building certainly wasn't. Yup, this wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

"Look at this!" Thor shouted as he held off Loki with Mjolnir. "Look around you!" Loki did so with wide eyes. The city which had been peacefully going about it's Sunday before was now a chaotic madhouse. The Chitauri had spread out and tried to claim the land as theirs as quickly as possible, striking down anyone who dared get in their way. Buildings were being damaged and/or destroyed left and right, and civilians ran in terror through the streets, trying their best to escape without being decapitated by one of the hundreds of invaders descending upon them. It was beautiful! It was glorious! It was… It was…

 _Horror!_ Loki could feel an ice ball forming in the pit of his stomach. Fear was creeping into every cell in his body. _This is it. This is what Thanos is capable of. Forget integration, forget everything the Other did to you. **This** is **Thanos**. **This** is what he is capable of. **This** is what he's doing to Midgard, and **this** is what he **will** do to Asgard. As much as you think that you are truly in control here, once Thanos has the Tesseract and the Earth as his prize, he is eventually going to set his sights on Asgard, and when he does…_

Loki's head burned as he realized what he'd just condemned Asgard to; what he'd condemned **himself** to. Yes, taking over Midgard and waging war on Asgard was his ultimate plan – even if he did manage to forget that sometimes – it wasn't a full-proof one. Mostly because he idiotically trusted Thanos to hold up his end of the bargain. Hell, Thanos never even technically agreed not to invade Asgard. He just said he'd consider it and that was the end of the matter. For all Loki knew, he'd been played the fool and Asgard would be next up on Thanos' hit list. His kingdom… His **rightful** kingdom would be decimated, and it would be all his fault.

"You think this madness will end with your rule?"

 _No. No it will not, my dear brother._

The ringing was louder than ever, splitting Loki's skull in half and driving him to near deafness. Still, he tried. He fought against it, tried to remain in control. He didn't want it to take away his thoughts again. Even if he couldn't stop anything here from happening, he had to at least try.

"It's too late," he managed to get out. "It's too late to stop it." Thor looked at him with eyes full of compassion. That's when the cracks started to form.

"No," Thor assured. "We can, together." Loki looked at his brother as the dam began to burst. Within seconds his right hand shot out, his knife going straight into Thor's side. He couldn't remember what he'd been thinking about before, all that he did know was that Thor tried to appeal to him again and he just didn't want to hear it.

"Sentiment," he said disgustedly as Thor fell to the ground, clutching his side. A ghost of a smirk started to come over his face when Thor suddenly rushed up and kneed him in the stomach, the blow knocking Loki through one of the glass safety barriers. He didn't fall, though. Instead, Thor picked him up and threw him right back down onto the concrete of the balcony.

Before Thor could attempt to get another blow in – or worse, plead for him to stop again – Loki rolled sideways off the edge of the balcony and down onto one of the hoverbikes piloted by the Chitauri. He quickly grabbed ahold of the controls and started piloting the vehicle himself. No one was going to stop this invasion or deter his plans. Not even – apparently – himself.

* * *

Steve, Clint, and Natasha did their best to fend off the Chitauri invading the streets. Steve was able to give orders to the NYPD to evacuate the media and those who failed to heed the evacuation notices earlier either to the basements of nearby buildings or down into the subway tunnels and to move back their perimeter to 39th Street. Meanwhile, Natasha covered Clint while he evacuated a stranded city bus. They were all able to hold their own for the most part, but all of them would have to admit that they were relieved when a certain God of Thunder showed up and struck down several opponents with one burst of lightning. If anything, it was going to give them the two seconds they needed to regroup and reassess the situation.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked as he, Clint, and Natasha approached Thor.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable," he reported.

"Thor's right," Tony's voice came over the comms. "We got to deal with these guys."

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team," Steve asserted.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor said.

"Yeah," Clint remarked as he quickly wiped off some of his arrows and stuck them back in his quiver. "Get in line."

"Save it," Steve commanded. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We've got Tony up top. He's going to need us to…" The sound of an engine approaching cut Steve off. Turning around, he saw none other than Dr. Banner approaching on a motorcycle, coming to a stop a few feet away. The group went over to meet him.

"So," Bruce said as they approached. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Natasha remarked.

"Sorry." It was clear he automatically thought she was referring to the incident on the Hellicarrier.

"No," she assured. "We could use a little worse."

"Tony," Steve said into his communicator. "We got him."

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up," Tony said. "I'm bringing the party to you." Within seconds the armor could be seen doing a wide curve around a building, closely followed by the sky-whale, which seemed to make a point of slamming the side of its body into the same building. Everyone grabbed their weapons, prepared to engage.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha remarked.

They all watched as Tony took it in low, the creature following closely behind him, snapping its jaws at his feet. Cars were crushed and thrown to opposite sides of the street. Slowly, Bruce started to approach the enormous alien.

"Dr. Banner," Steve said. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Bruce turned back to him with a small smile on his face.

"That's my secret, Captain," he remarked. "I'm always angry." With that he turned back around, his pallor complexion turning a monstrous green and his physical form increasing to at least three times his size. As the sky-whale scraped across the pavement towards them, the Hulk smashed his fist directly into the creature's forehead, causing it to flip in the air as it halted in its destructive path.

Before it could fall to the ground, Tony swung back around and fired an explosive into a weak spot in the creature's armor. Steve quickly raised his shield and pulled Natasha down to cover them both from the explosion. Once it dissipated, they all quickly got to their feet and lined up in a back-to-back circle, ready for and expecting an enemy swarm to come down upon them in retaliation. Around them, they could all hear the Chitauri screeching in anger, but they were silenced when the Hulk let out a mighty roar.

Things were quiet for a half a second after that, but as Tony touched down on the ground next to Steve, the streets were quickly filled with a new sound; cheering and applause, all for them. It would have been quite the moment if it weren't for the incredibly dangerous situation they were in. The frightened citizens must have thought that bringing down the sky-whale was the end of it, but in fact, it was only the beginning, and all the Avengers knew it.

"Guys," Natasha said, and with an upward glance, everyone saw what had grabbed her attention. Numerous sky-whales began swimming through the portal, along with even more Chitauri soldiers. Oh yes, things were just getting started.

"Call it, Captain." Steve resisted the urge to smile as he felt a little flutter run through his heart. It was nothing unpleasant, he was just grateful that for the first time in days he and Tony were working together and on the same page. Even if they failed here, if they died, at least they wouldn't die angry with each other. That was a small comfort as Steve put his leadership cap on and got down to formulating a plan.

"Alright, listen up," he said. "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment." He turned to Clint and pointed at a nearby building. "Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." He then turned to Tony. "Tony, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"You gonna give me a lift?" Clint turned to Tony and asked. Tony walked over and grabbed him by the quiver.

"You better clench up, Legolas," he said before blasting off and taking Clint to his designated lookout point. Steve turned to Thor.

"Thor," he said. "You got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lighting. Light the bastards up." Spinning Mjolnir by the handle, Thor nodded and took off. Now it was on to Natasha. "You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here." Natasha gave an affirmative nod before turning to the final member of their team. "And Hulk…" The giant man turned to Steve with a growl. "Smash." The Hulk understood that, as he grinned at Steve before jumping up on the sides of two nearby buildings to smash a half a dozen Chitauri soldiers who had taken up sniper positions on the walls.

Steve glanced back over to Natasha. As their eyes connected, they exchanged determined, knowing nods before springing back into the fight. Steve had no idea if this would work, but they still had to try. None of them were going to let the Earth go down without a fight.

* * *

After almost an hour of non-stop fighting with no breaks and a hell of a lot of bad hits – one of which left her bleeding from her hairline – Natasha was starting to get battle-weary. This was made more evident when she picked up one of the Chitauri's weapons and turned to aim it at whoever was coming up behind her. She came within seconds of shooting Steve. Taking a few deep breaths, she sat down on the hood of a taxi cab, now heavily damaged and abandoned in the middle of the street.

"Captain," she said. "None of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." They both directed their gazes to the sky above. Despite Thor's attempts to curtail the number of Chitauri getting through and wreaking havoc on the streets, there was still a huge number getting by him and onto the streets below. Natasha could tell that Steve knew she was right.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve pointed out.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns," Natasha said. They both looked over at the pile of debris on the other end of the viaduct. Several cars, along with pieces of the bridge, buildings, and pieces of the Chitauri hoverbikes littered the end of the street, where a couple of the Chitauri had taken up positions.

"If you want to get up there," Steve said. "You're gonna need a ride." Natasha looked over behind Steve and could see an entire squadron of hoverbike-riding Chitauri approaching.

"I've got a ride," she said as she dropped her weapon to the ground. "I could use a boost though." Catching sight of the approaching legion Steve understood what it was she was going to do and backed up a few feet until he was standing in front of the bridge's barrier wall and Natasha did the same standing opposite him.

"Are you sure about this?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Natasha said, but the hoarse edge to her voice indicated otherwise. "It's gonna be fun." Her idea of "fun" was very similar to Tony's idea of a "party." With a nod, Natasha started running forward and leaped up on a car while Steve crouched down with the shield high above his head for Natasha to use as a springboard. As soon as her feet hit the vibranium, Steve surged upwards and tossed Natasha in the air. She then grabbed ahold of the back of a passing hoverbike and held on for dear life.

Quickly pulling herself up and onto the flying motorbike/platform, Natasha was instantly faced with the problem of the two Chitauri soldiers occupying the space with her. The first one was easy enough to take care of. She just had to cut the cord tethering the alien to the bike and knock it off with a single roundhouse kick. The other one was going to be a bit more of a challenge.

Hauling herself upwards, Natasha threw herself at the Chitauri that was controlling the vehicle. Landing on it's back, she saw that its body was wired into the controls of the bike. Not ideal, but she could work with that. Shoving her fingers into the soft part of its shell on its upper back, Natasha was able to apply enough pressure to get it to do what she wanted. She pressed down, digging her fingers into its left side to indicate that she wanted to go left.

"Turn!" she ordered. "Turn!" The creature complied and banked to the left so hard that they almost got completely turned around and they almost slammed into the side of a building. "Less! Less!" She took a deep breath to try to get herself to focus. It was clearly a steep learning curve, but Natasha knew she could figure it out. The fate of the world depended on it.

Several minutes and a few wrong turns later, Natasha felt she had a decent handle on the controls. She was making her way up Park, slowly ascending towards the top of Stark Tower when a blast whooshed by her head. Natasha turned to get a glance at the bogie on her tail.

"Oh, you." The annoyed tone in her voice was clear as Loki continued to fire upon her. She managed to dodge the blasts, but she knew she had no way of shaking off Loki without losing control of the bike. Catching sight of one of the buildings they were about to pass, Natasha knew exactly what to do. "Hawkeye," she called into the comms.

"Nat, what are you doing?" He asked once he caught sight of her predicament.

"Uh, a little help?" She swerved to dodge another blast and increased her speed. Loki was getting way too close for her liking.

As she zoomed past the building where Clint had taken up position, she gave a quick glance behind her to see if the arrow knocked Loki off her six or at the very least slowed him down enough to enable her to get to the top of the tower safely. Unfortunately, when she looked around she saw that Loki had caught the arrow in mid-air. However, seconds later a blast sounded off behind her.

 _Explosive arrow. Nice one, Clint._ She smirked to herself for a moment before the top of the tower started to come up underneath her. Now was the time. She let go of the alien she'd been controlling and threw herself off the bike. She timed it just right but wished she had stuck the landing a little better as she tumbled across the gravel roof. She knew she was going to have scrapes and bruises in odd places when she woke up the next day, but then again who here wasn't?

* * *

The shattered glass that littered the balcony cut into Loki's skin as he got to his feet, or at least, tried to. An inhuman roar and the blur of green that knocked him through the window, straight into the penthouse sort of made that process a bit difficult. Hitting the rear wall with a hard slam and a painful groan Loki's eyes narrowed with fury as he faced off against the giant green beast that had dared to assault him.

"Enough," he screamed as he surged to his feet. "You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a God, you dull creature and I will not be bullied by…" Getting grabbed by the legs and smashed back and forth into the floor with an amount of force that probably should have killed him cut that sentence short. When it was over, Loki was paralyzed – he wasn't sure if it was fear or injury, but still paralyzed. His eyes remained glued to the ceiling as the Hulk walked away.

"Puny God," he heard the beast remark. If he had any sense at that point, he would have retaliated, both verbally and physically, however, the pain was much too intense, and darkness was already clouding his vision. Before he finally did pass out, he couldn't help but be grateful for the fact that the ringing probably wouldn't follow him in death.

* * *

"Stark, do you hear me?" By the time Fury's voice came through his comms, Tony had just taken out one of the sky-whales and had ended up back down on the ground, trying to fend off several Chitauri soldiers at once. His breathing was ragged, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up for. However, what Fury said next allowed him to tap into his last bit of resolve. "You have a missile headed straight for the city."

"How long?" Tony said as he tried to push himself to his feet but was thwarted by a Chitauri slamming the bottom of its spear into his helmet.

"Three minutes, max." Tony could feel all his inner organs sink. He blasted back as many of his attackers as he could. "The payload will wipe out Mid-town."

"JARVIS," he called out. "Put everything we got into the thrusters!"

"I just did." Within seconds, Tony was in the air. The Chitauri tried to drag him back down into the fight, but he shook them off and started on the warpath to intercept that missile. Within seconds, Natasha's voice came over the comms.

"I can close it," she said. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"

"Do it!" Steve's voice called out.

"No, wait!"

"Tony, these things are still coming."

"I got a nuke coming in," Tony said. "It's gonna blow in less than a minute." He'd just passed over the Brooklyn Bridge, flying over the mouth of the East River when he finally spotted the missile. Without hesitation, he took off after it. "And I know just where to put it." He quickly managed to match the pace of the missile and flew up underneath it and grabbed a tight hold of it.

"Tony, you know that's a one-way trip…" The shock in Steve's voice was palpable. Still, that didn't deter Tony. As scared as he might be, this is what needed to be done. Still he couldn't bear to hear Steve's voice for even a second longer. He didn't want to hear Steve's pain once he was gone.

"Save the rest for the turn, J." With that, the comms cut off and Tony was absolute, frighteningly alone. He couldn't focus on that, though. All that mattered was getting the damn missile into the portal. Nothing else.

Rapidly, the tower came into his sights. His stomach lurched with anxiety as more power was kicked into the thrusters. He swiftly began his ascent up, up, up, past Steve and Thor; past the Hulk; past all the invaders; past Natasha and Selvig; and up into the sky. Running parallel to the beam of light that connected the device to the portal above and taking a deep breath in, Tony prepared himself to face his final moments alive.

Quiet. That was the first thing Tony observed once he flew through the portal; everything was quiet. He was deep in the depths of space. He wished he could say that he was impressed. Growing up watching things like _Star Wars_ and _Star Trek_ , he dreamed of one day exploring the stars and venturing into the unknown, but it wasn't at all like the media presented it; all vibrant and teaming with life and the promises of adventure and discovery. It was just dark and terrifying, the most terrifying part is what lay above him – a huge ship with entire legions of sky-whales and Chitauri poised for attack, waiting to attack the Earth, to kill them all.

Things only served to get worse when Tony let out that breath he had been holding. JARVIS gave a static-filled notification that he was powering down and within seconds the HUD flickered off and the thrusters died, officially leaving him completely and utterly alone. Once the suit had fully powered off, his hands released the missile, sending it straight into the army above. All Tony could do was watch as the missile went off, and a huge, soundless explosion began to overwhelm the waiting invaders.

Tony struggled to keep his eyes open, but he knew it was pointless. The air was getting thinner and thinner. He may have thought to make his suits capable of deep-sea diving, but he never thought he would ever have to make them space-proof. The air was escaping quickly, and soon he would asphyxiate to death. That was alright, though. He had saved the Earth; saved Manhattan; saved Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy; saved Clint, Natasha, Bruce, and Thor; saved Steve… In the end, that was all that mattered to him. They would get to live out the rest of their lives safe. At that moment, that's all he wanted and all he could ask for.

As his eyes slipped shut, Tony could hear something in a distant part of his mind. A voice, one that he hadn't heard in such a long time. She was singing to him, softly, just as she had always done when she tucked him into bed at night. All his life Tony was skeptical of the existence of an afterlife, but if this was it, he couldn't think of a better way to be welcomed into it.

 _"Szomorú vasárnap száz fehér virággal_

 _Vártalak kedvesem templomi imával…"_

* * *

Steve stared up into the portal with wide eyes, desperately hoping that at any second Tony would come shooting out and everything would be fine. The Chitauri had already fallen, so whatever Tony did must have worked, but at the same time Steve couldn't kill off the feeling of dread that was building inside him.

 _Come on, Tony,_ he thought. _Please, just be okay! Please, just come back!_ However, it was futile. Nothing came out of the portal and from the angle he was at, he could see the bright light from the nuke detonating. It was over.

"Close it." Steve gave the command, but his voice was far too soft, weak… The Avengers may have stopped the Chitauri, but Steve Rogers was completely and utterly defeated. Just as he and Tony finally acknowledged there was something between them… No, he couldn't go through that thought process now. He just… He needed…

The beam of light that held the portal open went out. Natasha did what he said without the need to repeat himself. Slowly, the hole in the sky began to close itself. Steve directed his gaze to the ground. His heart was pounding. He couldn't breathe. This was the scariest thing he ever felt in his life. He was overwhelmed with the urge to run in search of a place with breathable air, however, his feet remained firmly planted to the ground, every single cell in his body wrenching with the loss.

 _Tony…_

At the last second, Steve lifted his head to the sky and what he saw… Well, it was nothing short of a damn miracle. Just as the portal was about to snap shut, the figure of a man clearly came tumbling out of it and once the sunlight caught a gleam on the red-and-gold paint job, there was no denying who it was.

"Son of a gun." Steve couldn't have erased the smile from his face even if he tried. At that moment, internally, he was thanking everything known to creation for bringing Tony back. However, his gratefulness was quickly overshadowed by concern.

"He's not slowing down." Tony might have the armor protecting him, but Steve doubted that he could walk away from a fall like that unscathed. Beside him, Thor began to swing his hammer, but it was taking too long. There was no way he could get to Tony before he hit the ground. Fortunately, they had a Hulk.

From out of nowhere, the beast came leaping with arms outstretched. He managed to catch Tony without hurting him before grabbing onto the side of a nearby building and sliding down before landing on his back. Steve and Thor jogged over to them and Thor quickly rolled Tony onto his back. Steve crouched down beside Tony and quickly took notice of the darkened Arc Reactor and the fact that the suit wasn't intaking or expelling air.

"He's not breathing," he quickly concluded. Thor reached down for the mask, sticking his fingers into the slots where the eye LEDs sat and pulled it effortlessly off Tony's face. Steve brought his ear down to Tony's mouth and nose. He hoped that he was mistaken, but unfortunately, he couldn't hear him breathe. Steve pulled back and weakly set his hand down on the Arc Reactor. He didn't know what to do. He knew CPR, but he couldn't do it while the armor was still covering his chest and if they tried to rip it off, by then Steve worried it'd be too late.

 _What do I do? How do I save you?_

Suddenly, the Hulk let out a great roar. It was so unexpected that Steve jumped a little bit. What was even more unexpected, though, was the sharp gasp of air coming from the lifeless body next to him. Steve's head whipped around, and blue eyes connected with brown. Tony was **awake**. He was alive and breathing. All the sudden all the joy and gratefulness that had been running through him before surged right back in. Unable to help himself, Steve rushed forward, placed his hands on either side of Tony's face, and kissed him. He didn't care that Thor and Bruce – or rather the Hulk – were watching. He didn't care what anyone saw or thought. He was just so overwhelmingly happy that Tony was safe and alive, and he put all that emotion and energy into the kiss.

Pulling back, Steve could see tears rolling down Tony's cheeks, but they weren't Tony's. Steve reached up and wiped his eyes with the back of his glove. How embarrassing, but Tony didn't seem to care. In fact, Tony looked completely shocked. It wasn't about the kiss, though. As soon as Steve's lips had touched his he responded and kissed back. No, it seemed that he was shocked that he was still alive.

"What the hell?" was the first question out of his mouth. "What happened? Steve's the only one who kissed me, right?" Steve sat down and took a few deep breaths, trying to regain his composure.

"We won." Tony let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, yay!" he said. "Can I have a redo on the celebratory kiss, though? You were great, but my lips were chapped, and I wasn't really expecting it… Just saying I could've done better. Good job, everyone, though. I… I think we've really earned taking the rest of the day off. What do you think? Have you guys ever tried shawarma? I don't know what it is but I want to try it." Steve couldn't help it, he broke out into a full-blown grin as Tony continued to ramble on in a shocked response to what had just almost happened to him. He wanted to pull him in close and give him another kiss, but for the moment he just settled for being grateful he had a Tony to kiss at all.

 _God, just… Thank you. Thank you so much._ However, Thor brought them both back into the situation with one sentence.

"We're not finished yet."

* * *

 **Thank you to nousername123, Trylissia, Dragon Queen Niji, and guest reviewer Star for the favorites, follows, and reviews on FFN and FriedChickenNisha for the comment and Princessvibes and the guest who left kudos on AO3! All of your feedback really means a lot! :)**

 **Woo! That was a long one! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, because damn...**

 **Remember kids, cliches are cliches for a reason.**

* * *

 **Star: Winghead and Shellhead are Tony and Steve's nicknames for each other in the comics. Steve's derives from the wings on the sides of his cowl (which now that I think about it are much more prominent in the comics) while Tony's obviously derives from the metal helmet encasing his head when wearing the Iron Man armor. While Steve hasn't been referred to as Winghead at any point in the MCU, I do remember Tony getting called Shellhead during _Age of Ultron_. Sadly, though, it was by Natasha. It was just a cool little easter egg I wanted to throw in there. ;) Glad you're enjoying the story so far! **

* * *

**Originally uploaded to FFN on 1/21/19.**


	14. What Comes After

**[Redacted]**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

Sometime later, Loki awoke again. Everything ached, and he was taking that as a good sign. After all, if he could feel pain in all his limbs, then he wasn't paralyzed. Slowly peeling open his eyes, he saw nothing above him other than the white stucco of the ceiling. He tried to turn over but found it difficult as he was seemingly embedded into the ground. Seeing no other way to get out, Loki slowly and painfully hoisted himself up out of the hole. When he finally did, his body almost gave out on him again. However, he fought to stay conscious and came out of that battle victorious. After a few minutes rest Loki started pulling himself forwards, up the small staircase that lay just a few feet from him. That's when he finally took notice of their presence.

The "Avengers" in all their glory stood before him. The beast, the man of iron, the captain, his… Thor, the Black Widow – now wielding his staff – and the Hawkeye, who had an arrow aimed directly at his forehead. Loki swallowed hard. He was no fool. He knew when he'd been beaten; when there were no tricks left to play; when his only option to ensure his own personal safety was to surrender. So, he slowly raised his hands.

"If it's all the same to you," he found himself saying. "I'll have that drink now." The Hulk gave out what seemed to be a snort of indignation, but the rest seemingly gave no response, just stared daggers at him for a few seconds. Eventually, the Hawkeye lowered his bow and the Black Widow handed the scepter over to Thor. Within seconds, each of them was grabbing one of his arms and pinning them behind his back.

"Under the Supreme Court decision of _Miranda v. Arizona_ , all law enforcement agencies – including S.H.I.E.L.D. – must issue the following warning whenever an arrest is made," Hawkeye said. "But in this case, you are not a citizen of this planet, nor a citizen of this country, so none of these rights apply to you, but we're legally required to tell you all of these rights that you do not have."

"You do **not** have the right to remain silent," the Black Widow said. "Refusal to answer questions will **not** be taken lightly."

"Anything you say **could** be used against you in a court of law," Hawkeye continued. "But let's face it, you're never going to go to trial."

"You do **not** have the right to consult an attorney before answering any questions, nor do you have the right to consult an attorney now or in the future." Loki could feel something tight and metal close around his wrist. He tried to tug at it, but the Widow responded by jabbing her fist into his side. He tried to suppress a groan of pain.

"Once again," Hawkeye continued saying. "Since you are not going to trial, you don't need to worry about hiring an attorney, but if you were and unable to afford one, the court would **not** be obligated to appoint one for you."

"If you wanted to answer questions without an attorney present, you do **not** have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney."

"Do you understand these rights that you do **not** have?" For a few seconds, Loki just blinked at Barton with a puzzled expression. He wanted to ask what an attorney was and why he was not allowed to have one, but instead, he kept that to himself and just nodded weakly. At that point, the agents grabbed both of his arms tightly and started pushing him towards the nearest stairway.

"Back us up, Thor?" Loki glanced over his shoulder to see his brother nod and start to follow them. In his eyes, Loki caught a glimpse of a wide range of emotions. Anger was the leading one, but he could also see glimpses of more heart-wrenching ones – disappointment, shame, despair – and the fact was, Loki couldn't find it in himself to blame Thor. Not because of everything he destroyed or the lives that were taken, he still felt that it was his God-given right to rule over all the Nine Realms.

No, it was for the deal he made – arguably the worst thing he did because now not only did Thanos know where another Infinity Stone was hidden, but Loki had also failed him. Failure was not an option when you were a servant of Thanos. It was either success or death. Then, the Other's words from earlier echoed back through his head along with the scorching memory of the pain that had been inflicted on him.

 _"If you fail; if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain."_

Loki squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on his tongue. Even though he didn't have it, he felt it necessary to exercise his right to remain silent now.

* * *

With each piece of armor that was lifted off him, Tony could slowly feel the weight of the world slowly lifting from him. It was over. Loki was captured. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that had been under Loki's influence were being rounded up and detained while they tried to figure out how to break the mind control without using Natasha's process of "cognitive recalibration". The police, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the National Guard were evacuating unauthorized civilians from the area, getting them to safety and medical attention if necessary. All the Avengers were accounted for, even if they were a little worse for wear. Steve was alive, safe, and head over heels for him (and yes, Tony still couldn't believe that last thing.) Most importantly, though, he was still alive.

His heart was beating normally (or what substitutes for normal when you have a cluster of shrapnel embedded in your chest), he was breathing fine, and as far as he could tell he had no critical, life-threatening injuries. All that Tony had JARVIS reassure him of at least five times since he set foot back in the tower, but it only served to scare him even more. Why? Because if nothing was wrong with him, why did it feel like everything was wrong with him?

As stated before, every time a piece of armor was removed from his body Tony felt an immense weight come off him. However, that wasn't necessarily a good thing. With each piece that came off, it literally felt like Tony was getting lighter and lighter to the point he had no physical mass. If he got any lighter, he'd get carried off on a breeze and float away. Thankfully, he did have a little bit of encouragement to keep moving forward and not collapse to the ground like he wanted. Steve was waiting for him at the end of the assembly line and as soon as the final piece of armor was off him, Tony practically jumped into his arms.

"Uff," Steve groaned as their bodies collided. He had to take a step back to regain balance. "You might want to take it easy there. I'm not as young as I used to be."

"Sure, you are," Tony said into his shoulder. His arms quickly wrapped around Steve's torso and he clung to him almost for dear life.

 _I'm not weightless,_ he reminded himself as he pulled his face away to look up at Steve. _That's impossible. I'm not going to fly away if I let go of Steve. I'm not…_

Tony's thought process was cut off by Steve's lips crashing into his again. God damn, he didn't know what had gotten into Steve, but Tony had to admit he liked it and this kiss had to be even better than the last one. Steve was an excellent kisser, but this time Tony got to be even more of an active participant. It was invigorating, the heat that swirled between them with each passing second and when they broke apart, neither one of them could wipe the ridiculous smiles off their faces.

"Hey," Steve said softly as he reached up to gently run a hand through Tony's hair.

"Hi," Tony responded back with a sense of amazement that he usually only reserved for tech he's never seen before and newborn babies. It caused his heart to swell up so much, tears threatened to start streaming down his face. "I'm alive."

"Yeah." Steve rubbed his other hand gently up and down Tony's side. "You're alive. We're all alive. We're safe."

"No," Tony said. "Steve, you don't get it. I'm **alive**." Tony could feel himself shaking, his left-hand trembling something fierce. Steve brought his hand down to cup Tony's jaw. Every breath he took felt like a struggle, not unlike the one he experienced back up there in space. "I… I almost asphyxiated… I saw that army… I…"

"Hey, hey." Steve's arms quickly encircled Tony in a warm comforting hug. For two seconds Tony let his guard down and allowed a few tears to slip out. "You're here now and everyone's safe. That's all that matters. Just try to focus on that, okay?"

"Okay." With a sharp breath Tony pulled his emotions back. The battle might be over, but they still had things to do – namely meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. and dealing with all the bull they had to dish out. He hoped they'd be able to squeeze shawarma in before that. He couldn't remember the last time he ate anything substantial. Probably when Pepper forced him to sit down and eat a ham sandwich a few days ago. Regardless, he couldn't do either of those things if he was a pathetic, sobbing mess, so he forced himself to pull it together. Still, he couldn't help but sneak out one small form of comfort. "Don't let go of me." A small, soft grin appeared on Steve's face.

"I won't," he assured. "Not unless you tell me to." Tony reflected that grin and placed a hand on Steve's shoulder, pulling it down his arm until he reached his hand and their fingers intertwined.

"Uh…" A nervous voice broke through their little bubble and Tony pulled back from Steve a bit. He didn't let go of his hand, though, as he turned to face Bruce who had returned to his normal form and was using a throw pillow to cover himself. "I'd hate to break up the moment, but can someone tell me where I can find some pants?"

"I have some in the middle drawer of my dresser," Tony said. "Just go down the hall and it should be the last door on the left, right before the emergency stairs." Bruce nodded and gave a quick "thank you" before disappearing down the hall. Tony turned back to Steve, who looked at him with a bit of concern.

"You good?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tony assured. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Good." Steve rubbed his thumb across the back of Tony's hand. "So… I guess we should talk about this, huh?"

"Not now," Tony said. "When we get longer than a moment alone, then we can talk about it. For now, let's just enjoy the moment."

"Enjoy the moment?" Steve questioned with a bit of a wry grin on his face. "How do you suppose we do that?"

Tony responding by pulling Steve in for yet another kiss. This one was more achingly slow and affectionate, and they both threw themselves into it completely. Oh yes, this was a moment that Tony could already tell he would treasure forever.

…Or at least he would have if it wasn't suddenly cut off by an inhuman scream and the sound of something hard and heavy hitting the wall. Tony and Steve instantly pulled back and his panicked eyes instantly connected with Steve's. Without even a second of discussion or hesitation, the two ran off – still holding hands – towards the source.

Making it down the hall, they quickly came across the sight of Lara pinning a still-naked Bruce to the wall, knife in hand ready to plunge into his eye socket at any second. Steve tried to step forward hoping to try and separate them, but Bruce's hand shot out in a motion that told him to wait. He obliged, but by the tightness with which he was gripping Tony's hand, Tony could tell that he wasn't too keen on the idea. Meanwhile, Bruce turned his attention to Lara.

"Listen," he said calmly. "Just listen. You need to put that knife down and back away."

"Why? So, you can kill me?" she questioned. "Fat chance."

"No, really listen," Bruce implored again. "You really don't want to do that. Just put the knife down. Otherwise, you're going to be putting yourself in danger."

"Conroy just drop the damn knife," Tony said, catching Lara's attention. "I really don't want to fire you for stabbing one of my friends." With that, Lara's eyes went wide, and the knife fell from her hand. She turned, saw Tony there, and let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Tony," she said as she rushed over to him. Tony was a little surprised when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. "Thank God you're here. I was so worried."

"I was too," he said. "But I'm not sure how I feel about the hugging." Lara instantly pulled back.

"Okay," she said. "That's fine. No hugging's good. Christ, sorry I'm a mess. These guys just broke in and…"

"It's okay," Tony assured. "We've got it taken care of. You're safe now."

"Wallace is dead," Lara said. "At least I think he is. They shot him. I saw it on the CCTV. There were too many of them, I couldn't handle it alone." Tony looked down at the news.

 _Damn it, yet another person I couldn't save._

"Then why'd you come charging out the door when I tried to open it?" Bruce's question made Lara turn around.

"I thought you were coming to kill me," she said plainly. "The best way to survive a mass shooting is to avoid the attacker, deny them access to your location, and – if it comes down to it – defend yourself. I couldn't avoid them, and I thought holding that door closed wouldn't last me long. The best option I had was to at least try and defend myself. That's what the Secret Service trained me to do and I was fully prepared to do it if Tony hadn't spoken up."

"Sure, you were," Bruce said not quite convinced. "Wait, Secret Service?"

"She's my assistant," Tony clarified. "She's had quite the interesting occupational history."

"Yup," Lara agreed. "Also, while we're on the subject of getting to know each other, who's that guy and why is he naked?" She turned and flickered her gaze back and forth between Steve and Tony. "I mean, I didn't walk in on some weird swinging thing or orgy, right?" Tony tried hard to suppress a laugh at Steve's reddening face and Bruce's abject horror.

"No," Tony said. "God, no. I'm not as rebel to the idea of monogamy as people might think. Anyways, the naked guy is Dr. Bruce Banner. Bruce, this is Lara Conroy. Now as to why he's naked… Uh, let's just say you don't want to piss him off."

"So, naked guy with anger issues?" Lara looked Bruce up and down as if assessing him. "Eh, I've been to San Diego. Nothing I can't handle."

"You might want to rethink that," Bruce said. "And by the way, clothes?"

"This way." Tony tapped the door he had meant for Bruce to go to. Apparently, he'd just gotten his left and right flipped and went into the supply closet directly across the hall, which Lara had been hiding in. Bruce gave a grateful nod and quickly disappeared behind the door. Meanwhile, Lara scratched the back of her head.

"So, anyways, I think I'm going to go," she said. "No offence, but after this whole ordeal I think I just want to go home and relax in the tub with a lavender bath bomb." She brought a hand to her head. "Err, maybe I should go to the Emergency Room first. I'm pretty sure I missed my last dose of insulin."

"They shut down Park Avenue," Tony explained. "So, once you get outside just follow the directions of the police and National Guard. They'll get you off the island safely."

"National Guard?" Lara gave him an odd expression.

"You'll see why when you get down there," Tony said. "Just listen and do what they tell you. Also, watch your step." Lara still looked confused, but nodded nonetheless.

"Alright," she said. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Err, Tuesday. Tomorrow's a holiday. Anyways, see you." She then went to the emergency stairs, opened the door, and pulled it shut behind her.

"I hope she knows she left her laptop and all of her other crap here," Tony remarked once she was gone.

"Should we tell her?" Steve asked.

"Nah," Tony said. "The sooner she gets out of Manhattan, the better. Anyways…" Tony turned and wrapped an arm around Steve's waist. "Where were we?"

"Enjoying the moment," he said.

"Ah, yes," Tony said. "I really liked that moment. Care to revisit it?"

Just as Tony and Steve started to lean in for their fourth kiss, another door banged open and footsteps could be heard entering the penthouse.

"Stark!" Natasha called out. "We're back! Loki's in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and he won't be getting out any time soon." Tony pulled back and looked at Steve, slightly disappointed.

"…And the moment's gone." Steve put a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay though?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tony assured. "Come on, let's go get something to eat before we all keel over from exhaustion and starvation."

* * *

Surprisingly enough, the shawarma place was still open when the Avengers showed up. When they asked the old man and woman who ran the restaurant why they didn't close shop and flee when the invasion started, they looked completely non-pulsed.

"We from Gaza," the man said in heavily accented English. "Palestine. This normal." Tony made sure to give them an extra big tip after that.

They sat in silence for quite a while. No one really wanted to break the silence. For once, it was comfortable. That wasn't something Tony expected sitting at a table with two deadly assassins, the Incredible Hulk, a Norse God, and Captain America – the living legend himself – but the circumstances and working together as a team had changed that. Now, Tony could honestly say that he trusted everyone sitting at this table with his life and that was something he thought he'd never be able to do. It was almost nice.

Keyword: almost. Tony felt like he was lighter than air and though he thought eating would help, but so far, the only thing that did was leave him with the horrible feeling of a rock sinking into his stomach. Don't get him wrong, the shawarma was good. He supposed it was more his nerves than the food causing that upset, and it was understandable. After all, who wouldn't freak out if they had something wrong with them and they couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was?

Across the table, Steve glanced up at Tony with a concerned look. Tony did his best to give his newly-acquired boyfriend a reassuring smile but found he couldn't be quite convincing enough. Tony beat him to the punch before he could say anything.

"I'm okay," he assured. "Don't worry about me."

"You just threw a missile into space," Steve pointed out. "I think I have a right to be worried."

"Well, don't," Tony said. "I am one-hundred percent, completely, absolutely fine."

"And I'm supposed to take your word for that?"

"Yes, otherwise I'm going to find a way to make you shut your mouth."

"Oh, really?" A wry grin came across Steve's face. "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Tony smirked.

"Don't test me, sweetheart," he said.

"Uh," Bruce suddenly spoke up. "Okay, I'm sorry, but I have to ask, when did all the flirting and the kissing start? Not that I have a problem with it. Good for you guys, but did I miss something?"

"Wait, they kissed?" The excitement in Natasha's voice unnerved Tony a little bit.

"Aye," Thor confirmed.

"Twice," Bruce added. Natasha let out a slightly wicked laugh and held out her hand to the man next to her.

"Pay up, Barton."

"I don't have any money on me," Clint said through a mouthful of food.

"Well, you should have thought of that before you made the bet."

"Crap." Clint swallowed hard. "I'll pay you as soon as we get back, alright?"

"You two took bets on whether or not I'd kiss Tony?" Steve brought a hand up to his face in a weak attempt to hide how red it was turning, both from embarrassment and anger. Tony glared at the two assassins, who were attempting to handwave the issue.

"No," Clint dismissed.

"Of course not," Natasha said. "We bet on whether or not you two would get together."

"That's even worse," Steve protested. "When did you even make the bet?"

"When we were getting off the Quinjet," Natasha shrugged. "You were two busy gaping at the sky-whales to notice."

"I wasn't gaping," Steve insisted.

"I could hear you over the comms, honey," Tony said. "You were, in fact, gaping, but then again who wouldn't? None of us has seen anything like that before. Well, other than Thor, since apparently giant birds are common wherever he's from."

"Actually, they're a more common mode of travel on Vanahiem than Asgard," Thor said. "And I never said they were 'giant', just large enough to ride."

"That's giant to us, Thor," Clint said.

"Regardless," Thor said. "I can assure you I have never seen anything like that before. That was…"

"Brutal," Natasha offered.

"Horrific," Steve added.

"The stuff of nightmares," Clint groaned.

"Chaos," Bruce continued.

"E," Tony said. "All of the above."

"Yes," Thor said regretfully. "And on behalf of my brother and all of Asgard, I must apologize for everything he has done."

"No need," Natasha said. "As long as Loki receives sufficient punishment on Asgard, we'll consider that apology enough."

"Loki's going back to Asgard?" Bruce questioned.

"It was Fury's decision," Natasha said. "Our legal system isn't prepared to handle a case of these proportions, especially when you consider all the legal and political issues that prosecuting an extraterrestrial would stir up. In the end, it was smarter to hand Loki over to his own people."

"Loki's actions will not be taken lightly," Thor assured. "Our father will see to it."

"Yeah," Clint said. "That's reassuring. Daddy's going to put Loki in time-out. Meanwhile, one of my closest friends is dead."

Everyone fell silent after that. No one could bring themselves to say anything, because damn… That was, until Steve raised his glass.

"I'd like to propose a toast," he said. "To the man who believed in us, even when we didn't; the one who looked at us, saw what we could be, and didn't give up on us. To the heart of the Avengers, Phil Coulson." Tony held up his glass.

"To Coulson." Bruce, Thor, and Natasha followed his lead.

"To Coulson," they said unanimously. Slowly, Clint raised his glass.

"To Coulson." With that, their glasses clinked together, and everything fell silent again as they took sips off their respective soft drinks. Tony felt the corners of his lips raise as he looked around the table. At that point, it truly sunk in.

 _We're a team now,_ he thought. _No going back._

His smile faltered when he took a deep breath in and felt like he was inhaling water.

 _Yup, something's wrong with me._ Shakily, he put his glass back down on the table and hoped no one noticed how bad his hands were twitching.

* * *

 **Thank you to mfaerie32 and guest reviewer Star for the reviews on FFN and FriedChickenNisha for the comment on AO3. You guys rock!**

 **[This unrelated rant has been redacted]**

 **Remember kids, don't listen to me when I'm off my meds. I tend to ramble about pointless topics like this. SERIOUSLY CVS, WHAT THE FUCK?**

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 **Star: Thank you so much for the review. Yeah, you're right, poor Steve, poor Tony, and poor Loki, too! I'm really glad you enjoyed this chapter! :)**

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 **Originally posted to FFN on 1/25/19.**


	15. Hush Now, My Darling

**I have been awake for twenty-two hours now because my living situation has become so bad that I seriously can't fall asleep in my own bed. Yup. That's where I'm at right now.**

* * *

 **Sunday, September 4th, 2011**

After finishing their meals, the Avengers went straight back to the Hellicarrier for debriefings, and yes, it became very apparent that getting a play-by-play of what actually happened was clearly S.H.I.E.L.D.'s priority as they weren't allowed to shower or get medical attention first. As far as they were concerned, if you were still standing you could handle a forty-five-minute interview in a dark, cold, soundproof room. After which, they were finally allowed to clean themselves up and see medical professionals.

Steve and Tony were separated once they were taken to be debriefed, as was everyone else. It was standard procedure, but Steve couldn't help but be a little miffed by it, especially when there was something clearly wrong with Tony. Steve could tell that he wasn't being honest when he said he was alright. Earlier when they were kissing, it felt like Tony was shaking in his arms. Given the brutality of the battle and the fact that Tony had a "minor" hysterical break earlier, Steve couldn't help but think he wasn't coping with any of this well emotionally and considering that Tony almost died… Well, Steve could attest first-hand that almost dying did a number on your emotions, and he could only imagine how Tony was internally reacting to it.

So, as soon as he had cleaned himself up and was given the go-ahead by the S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors, Steve set out looking for Tony. Surprisingly, it didn't take long for someone to find him. Not Tony, but close enough.

"Captain Rogers," he heard a woman's voice call out as he passed by. Turning around he saw a woman wearing a medical staff's uniform standing in the entrance to an adjacent hallway. "I was sent to get you. Mr. Stark has been asking for you." Steve's heart leaped.

"Is he okay?" Steve asked.

"Perfectly fine," the nurse said. "Just really woozy and tired. He could probably use some help getting back to his room." Steve nodded and proceeded to follow her down the hall. Within a minute or two he could hear Tony's voice coming down the hall, and already he didn't like what he was hearing.

"I'm telling you, doc," he heard Tony say. "There has to be something wrong with me. I don't know what it is, but I just feel it."

"Mr. Stark," he heard an exasperated woman's voice say. "We've run every test we're capable of performing here. All of them came back normal for a man of your height and weight, and scans showed that none of the shrapnel around your heart has moved. You're perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong."

"Well, check again," Tony insisted. "You had to have missed something because I just don't feel right. Also, where's Steve? Are you still getting him or do I have to throw a tantrum?"

"I'm right here," Steve said as he walked into the room. "No need."

Getting a proper look at Tony, Steve couldn't help but be taken aback by what he saw. First, he was gorgeous with his hair clinging to his forehead thanks to the dampness of the shower and the loose-fitting plain sweats that S.H.I.E.L.D. had provided them all with. Secondly, he looked out of it. There was a fog over his eyes that he seemed to be fighting with all his strength. It didn't take long for Steve to come to the obvious conclusion – they had drugged him. That truly ticked Steve off. Nonetheless, as soon as Tony's eyes connected with his, a bright, if somewhat silly smile came across his face. That reassured him a little bit, but not much.

"Steve," he said in the hazy cheerfulness that usually accompanied being on strong drugs. "Finally, you're here. I've been asking for you for forever."

"Well, I'm here now." Steve went to Tony's side and clasped his hand tightly between both of his. "No need to worry. I'm here, I'm safe, and I've got you." He noticed several S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel raise their eyebrows at the interaction, but Steve chose to ignore it. Natasha had explained to him that almost all S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives had gone "gay for pay" (had sex with someone of the same gender to gain intel and/or trust that would prove crucial to an operation's success) at least once. Herself and Clint had been included in that. If anyone had a problem with him and Tony being gay, then they were being horrible hypocrites and probably deserved to get their asses kicked. Granted, Steve didn't think this same principal probably applied to the less-espionage-oriented parts of S.H.I.E.L.D., like their medical team, but at the same time it was nice to know that if the organization ever decided to lock him and Tony up for their sexualities, they had at least two people who would have their backs, ready to stage a mutiny and a breakout if it came to that, and yes, that was how they phrased it.

Steve directed his attention back to Tony, who had taken his bleary gaze away from Steve and back to the doctor who was treating him. Oh, this was going to be good.

"There's something wrong with me," he said, pointing an accusatory finger. "They keep saying I'm fine, but I know there's something wrong. I feel lighter than air and my heart's not beating. That isn't right, right?" Steve's eyebrows went up in alarm. He didn't know what could cause those symptoms, but they were too serious for a doctor to just ignore. Immediately, the doctor let out a heavy sigh and run a hand through her dark ponytail.

"Captain Rogers," she said. "Can I have a word with you for a second?" Steve looked at Tony for a few seconds. He could tell Tony didn't want him to let go, but he had to. After all, Tony wasn't clear enough to explain what was going on. That much, Steve could tell.

"It'll just be a minute," he assured. "Then I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay," Tony reluctantly agreed. Steve couldn't help but give him another worried glance as he let go of his hand and started baking away. It looked like Tony was trying with all his might not to fall asleep.

 _Jesus,_ Steve thought. _What did they give him?_

Stepping across to the other side of the room, Steve stood across from the doctor, her wide, dark brown eyes drilled directly into him the seriousness of her words.

"I gave him Valium." Her voice was very clear and direct. "I had to. He was showing signs of severe anxiety and I needed to calm him down as fast as possible. Besides, he could probably do with the nap given that he told me he's probably only gotten ten hours of sleep this week at the bare minimum." Steve could barely control the shocked look on his face, though he did keep his mouth from falling open in astonishment.

"Ten hours?" The doctor nodded in confirmation. "Holy hell…"

"He'll be fine," she assured. "He just needs to rest. In fact, I think his symptoms will go away if he just gets some sleep. The only problem is that he doesn't believe me when I say that there's nothing physically wrong with him."

"Well, yeah," Steve said. "I wouldn't either if I had just flown a missile through a portal to space."

"Regardless," the doctor said. "All our tests came back normal and he keeps insisting we do more. Since he's been asking for you, I've been wondering if you'd be able to convince him to go back to his room and get some sleep." Steve nodded.

"Sure," he said. "I mean, I could try, but did you really have to give him Valium?" Steve had been on that before and he didn't enjoy the experience. He doubted Tony appreciated it, either.

"I only gave him a small amount," the doctor explained. "Just enough to throw him into a dreamless sleep for a few hours. That is, if he stops fighting it." Steve nodded in understanding.

"Alright," he said. "I'll help him get back to his room."

"Thank you," the doctor said before Steve turned back to the exam table Tony was lying on.

"Hey," he said in a soft, gentle voice, the same one he could remember his mom using whenever he was sick. "Come on, you've got to get up."

"I'm not okay," Tony said as Steve gently shook his shoulder.

"I know," he said. "I know you're not okay, but you've got to help me out here. Everything will be better once we get back to your room."

"My room?" Tony questioned.

"Yeah," Steve said. "You're going to lay down and go to sleep and when you wake up everything will be better." That was clearly a lie, but he doubted Tony would care in the morning when he was well-rested, and his mind had enough time to process the emotions he was feeling in the fallout of all of this. Still, Tony hesitated.

"Will you stay with me?" he finally asked, his voice coming out in a low whisper.

"Of course," Steve assured. "I'll stay with you."

"The whole night?"

"The whole night."

"Okay." Tony slowly sat up and once he was able to get to his feet, Steve slung an arm around his shoulders to support him. He gave the doctor one last quick "thank you" before leading Tony out the door and down the hall.

The journey to Tony's room wasn't unlike the last time Steve had to carry a half-dazed Tony; Steve was doing most of the work carrying Tony's weight while Tony was completely unhelpful by walking with his eyes closed. Still, it wasn't hard for Steve to find the room, seeing as he, Natasha, Thor, and Bruce were all placed in the same hallway. The others all had their doors shut, likely taking some well-earned naps after being up all day and night fighting. Tony's door, however, was slightly ajar and walking in Steve could see that someone had recently been in there, as Tony's clothes had been left on the bed; freshly laundered and sealed in one of those bags you were supposed to vacuum the air out of that he had seen advertised on Television. Steve moved them out of the way before helping Tony lay down. Steve had expected him to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Tony surprised him by immediately scooching over to make room on the full-sized mattress and patting the newly-vacated space beside him.

"C'mon stranger," he said. "I've been waiting to be alone with you forever." Steve smiled at that but first went back to shut the door before climbing in and wrapping his arms around Tony.

It was a tight fit. They were both too tall for the bed, something that surprised Steve because Tony was all of 5'9" – more than half a foot shorter than him. If anyone could fit in this bed, he should, but apparently not. However, the lack of space wasn't exactly a bad thing, either. After all, it meant that they'd be in constant physical contact with one another, which given the day's events didn't sound that bad at all.

As soon as they managed to get comfortable, Tony pulled Steve close for another kiss. This kiss was much more chaste than the ones before it, but still enjoyable nonetheless. When Tony pulled back, he gave him a wide smile.

"Hi," he said.

"Hey." Steve punctuated his response by pressing another quick peck to Tony's lips. "How are you feeling."

"Awful," Tony said, pressing his face into Steve's shoulder. "I feel like I can't breathe."

"But you are," Steve pointed out. "You're breathing at a nice, solid, even pace. No need to worry."

"I'm not worried," Tony asserted. "And I'm not scared. I just know something's wrong with me."

"Yes," Steve said. "There is. You're tired and overworked and you've been through a traumatic event and all you need to do to feel better is to get some sleep. Can you do that for me?"

"I feel like if I fall asleep, I'll die." Steve blanched at the dark thought.

"No, you won't," he said. "I promise you won't, not on my watch. I'll die before you do." Steve could tell that sentiment scared Tony a little by the way he tensed up in his arms. Steve really didn't care. He meant it. He'd rip out his own lungs to give Tony an emergency transplant before he let him asphyxiate to death in his sleep. That was the truth of it.

"You can't mean that," he said weakly.

"Well, I do," Steve said. "Now just relax and shut your eyes. I promise you'll feel better when you wake up." If for any reason, because he wouldn't have Valium in his system anymore.

Tony obliged, shifting a little bit in Steve's arms before resting his head on the pillow and sliding his eyes shut. Steve nuzzled his face against the top of Tony's head and gently pressed a kiss to the corner of his forehead. Tony gave a little hum of approval and Steve started running his fingers through his hair again. All was quiet for a while and Steve thought that Tony had finally drifted off. He was proven wrong about that when he heard Tony's small, sleep-addled voice speak up.

"Steve…" he whispered.

"Yeah." Steve didn't realize how close he was to drifting off himself until he heard the tired edge to his voice.

"What are we?" Steve's eyebrows knitted together, but he didn't attempt to open his eyes or pull away.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Tony let out a soft sigh.

"You wanted to talk about this earlier," he said. "So, let's talk about it. What are we?"

"I don't know," Steve murmured. "I thought you would."

"You overestimate me, Rogers," Tony said. "Because I don't have a single clue either."

"I guess we're in a relationship." That was honestly the best way Steve could describe it, with the very vague term of "relationship." That really didn't define anything. A relationship can be either platonic or romantic. It can describe friends, family, enemies, or lovers. It really didn't do anything to define what they were to each other. Tony let out a little bit of a humorless laugh.

"Yeah," he said. "I know, but what kind of relationship? Are we boyfriends, lovers, friends with benefits? Help me out here."

"Maybe the first two?" Steve guessed. "But I don't know what that last one is."

"Good," Tony said. "Because I don't think my heart could take it." If Steve had the energy, he'd give Tony a confused look, but he was too tired and too comfortable to move. "Just ask yourself this, what do you want from a relationship with me? If you can figure that out, we can use that to figure out what label we can put to this." Steve smiled against Tony's forehead.

"That's easy," he said. "I want everything." He could hear Tony inhale sharply and go stiff, but still, he continued. "I want **this**. I want to be able to hold you and kiss you whenever I like. I want to go to bed with you every night and wake up with you every morning. I want to get to know you, Tony. I want to know everything you are." As he spoke he could feel Tony slowly relax in his arms. He liked that idea, but still, there was an underlying layer of nervousness.

"You… You might not like everything you find," he said. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of."

"I know," Steve said. "And I'm not scared. I know a portion of it from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files. I know about how you used to deal weapons and not care who it hurt. I know the man you were before you became Iron Man wasn't an angel and I'm sorry I tried to use that against you when we were arguing earlier because, in truth, you are a good man. You saw first-hand what your weapons were doing to people and you chose to stop it. You chose to save people. You risked your life for all of us; the Avengers, New York, the world, me… In fact, that's kind of what made me get my head out of my ass. The idea of losing you… I just couldn't take it. It made me stop caring about what other people thought and when you came back down to Earth… I was just so happy, and I just couldn't contain it. I need you, Tony. I need to move forward with you, and even if this whole relationship thing doesn't work out, I still need you in my life. Do you… Do you get that?"

"Yeah," Tony said as he snuggled closer (if that was even possible) and tightened his hold on Steve. "I think I understand better than anyone."

"So, what does that sound like to you." He could feel the smile coming across Tony's face.

"Boyfriends," he said. "Definitely boyfriends, at least for now."

"What about the second thing?" At that, Tony frowned.

"I'm not ready for that yet," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I've wanted to have sex with you for quite a while now, but given everything that's happened and all the emotional shit we're going to have to deal with until then… I just… I'm not ready and frankly, I don't think you are either." To be honest, Steve was quite relieved upon hearing that. As much as he wanted to be with Tony, he agreed that it would be better for both to have that option completely off the table, at least until they felt comfortable enough with each other and felt emotionally prepared to deal with everything that came with being in a sexual relationship. For now, he'd be fine with hugs, cuddling, and a healthy dose of kissing. Speaking of which, Steve once again pressed a soft kiss against the top of Tony's head.

"Couldn't agree more," he said.

"Good." Tony let out his own breath of relief. "Glad we're on the same page."

"Yeah," Steve said. "And now that we're on the same page, do you think you'll be able to get some sleep?"

"Yeah." Tony leaned up and gently pressed a kiss against Steve's cheek. "Goodnight, Steve." Steve quickly responded by placing another nice, soft, chaste kiss against Tony's lips.

"Goodnight, Tony." They drifted off after that, both feeling warm, comfortable, and most importantly of all, overjoyed. Even with everything that had happened over the past few days, both were just happy to have found a moment of solace in each other, however fleeting it might be in the grand scheme of things.

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 **Thank you to K's Room of Requirement and The Other Jet Engine for favoriting and following this fic! Also, thank you to mfaerie32 and guest reviewer Star for the reviews! On AO3, Thank you to FriedChickenNisha for the comment and the guest for leaving kudos! It really means a lot, so thank you all!**

 **Yeah, obviously I'm not in the right headspace to be writing an author's note right now but I know if I don't write something now I'll forget when I actually go to publish the chapter. I hope you all enjoy the fluff! Sorry, I'm such a Debby Downer.**

 **Remember kids to stick around for the post-credits scenes!**

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 **EDIT 2/1/19: PBLLT! I didn't realize until right when I hit the publish button that I didn't reply to Star's review! See, I forget crap all the time! Hope you can forgive me for that! Anyways, here's my reply to your review!**

 **Star: Glad you enjoyed it! I couldn't stop giggling when I wrote that part with Loki as well. Little did Clint and Natasha know, when they made that bet they already were kind of together, lol! For now, don't worry about Tony. You'll have to worry about him by the time the sequel to this comes out, but for right now he's cuddling with Steve and happy. That's all that counts! :)**

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 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 2/1/19.**


	16. The Parting of the Ways

**Last Chapter! Hurrah!**

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 **Monday, September 5th, 2011**

They gathered in Central Park, the only spot in the city clear enough for Thor and Loki to use the Tesseract to get back to Asgard. The park had been evacuated along with the rest of Manhattan and no one had been allowed back inside yet – other than them. It was strange, seeing the park so empty, so dead. Streets that were normally awash with people were suddenly still. It was really an eerie and unsettling sight to see.

The Tesseract was placed in a special container. A twist of the handles on both sides would send the two Asgardians home. Loki had a gag over his mouth to keep him from using his magic, and his hands were shackled together, but free enough so he could hold on to the other handle when Thor offered it to him. Within an instant, the two men were swallowed up by a blue light. Everyone had to take a step back as the force of the teleportation sent out a shockwave. With that, Loki was gone and the entire situation was considered done and over with.

From there, they all went their separate ways. Selvig went with Fury and Hill to see what could be recovered from Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Clint and Natasha was off to parts unknown. Though they couldn't disclose where they were going, they did inform them that they would attend Coulson's funeral – whenever that ended up being - and that if anything went wrong, the remaining Avengers had a number they could call.

As for Steve, Tony, and Bruce, well, they had their work cut out for them. The tower was wrecked to the point where it was barely habitable, New York was left in ruins, and they all had to deal with the fact that the universe was a lot larger than they ever could have imagined. However, the three of them were still dedicated to at least cleaning up the mess they created, if not outright fix it, so at least they had a starting point. With Steve leading the way on his motorcycle, Tony and Bruce followed closely behind in Tony's sportscar, cutting their way through the empty city streets to their destination.

While the six Avengers were parting ways, they all found themselves vowing that no matter how far apart they were, no matter what happened, if the Earth needed them, they'd be there.

* * *

In a long-forgotten, derelict part of the galaxy, the Other stood on bended knee before his master, the Mad Titan himself, Thanos.

"Humans," the Other said. "They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled." Thanos stood up, and instantly the Other bowed his head. "To challenge them is to court death."

The Other watched as Thanos turned around, a wide grin spreading across his face. That look communicated only two simple words, words that would change the universe: challenge accepted.

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 **So that is it for this story! Thank you for all the support you guys have given to this and the prequel, _My Head's Above the Rain and Roses_! It really means a lot and I hope you continue to follow this series into the next fic, _Live to Rise_ , coming out 6/15/19! Now, if you're asking yourself, "why the long wait?" It's because I want to wait for _Captain Marvel_ and _Avengers: Endgame_ to come out. _Captain Marvel_ takes place prior to almost every MCU film, so there could be stuff in it that effects what we know/understand about the MCU. Also, I want to find out where Carol Danvers has been for the past twenty years and whether or not I can change things up so she makes an appearance earlier on in the story. As for _Endgame_ , there are rumors (that I hope are untrue) that the plot of that movie is going to be resolved through time-travel. Again, I want to see if this is true and if it is, how it affects the MCU timeline. Again, I hope it's untrue. As a writer, I know it's next to impossible to write a time travel story that doesn't contain plot-holes and contradictions. It's the nature of the beast and if the whole story focuses on time travel... Ugh, I don't want to imagine that headache. Personally, I think what it's actually going to be is travel between alternate universes/realms. I feel like that's what they've been spending a lot of Phase Three establishing, with _Doctor Strange_ opening up the concept, _Ant-Man and the Wasp_ focusing heavy on the quantum realm, and the rumors that _Captain Marvel_ will have some focus on the quantum realm as well. So, yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. Sorry, this is a big block of text, and this is my awkward transition into the next paragraph.**

 **If you enjoyed this story, I encourage you to check out the playlists for _MHATRAR_ and _Unbroken_! Both are available for listening on Youtube and Spotify (My usernames on each respectively are xMewWinx96x and Mew.), but track listings for both will be below the special thanks just in case you can't find it.. (Yes, I am trying to fill up space because I feel guilty about only writing a 500-word chapter.) Again, thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, commented, left kudos, and everything else! You all rock!**

 **Remember kids, good things come to those who wait!**

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 **SPECIAL THANKS:**

 **FFN: , Anonymous Person (Guest Reviewer), DarkSkity, Dragon Queen Niji, FanGirlForever19, K's Room of Requirement, mfaerie32, nousername123, Ricardian Scholar Clark-Weasley, Star (Guest Reviewer), The Other Jet Engine, and Trylissa**

 **AO3: Balletgrl046, dixid, FriedChickenNisha, hope_nagai, Illegirlsus, kagsfan mammal, mangonanas_1, Mekajiki, Princessvibes, shekelash, Sweet_As_Suga, theskullycat, and Zeifirka1107**

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 **Playlist: (1) "Prelude 12/21" by AFI, (2) "Welcome to Chaos" by Son of Rust, (3) "Jumpsuit" by twenty one pilots, (4) "King of the Clouds" by Panic! at the Disco, (5) "Into the Blue" by Bush, (6) "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC, (7) "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons, (8) "New Way to Bleed" by Evanescence, (9) "Falling Inside the Black" by Skillet, (10) "Eyes Open" by Taylor Swift, (11) "Coming Back Down" by Hollywood Undead, (12) "Comeback" by Redlight King, (13) "Unbroken" by Black Veil Brides, (14) "Glory" by Bastille, (15) "Delicate" by Taylor Swift, and (16) "We'll Be Coming Back" by Calvin Harris Featuring Example.**

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 **Originally uploaded to FFN on 2/2/19.**

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 **Next: _My Kingdom Awaits_ id: 13270965**


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